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[...] Therefore, IT service providers must be more strictly regulated, as they are now in contact with many financial intermediaries and have the power to create systemic risks. 3.2. Access to central bank money Secondly, central banks must adapt their central bank money offer to these developments. A role for central bank digital currency could be to prevent unnecessary fragmentation of liquidity. The ECB is actively working on the digital euro project, mainly to maintain the sovereignty of the European currency against private and international providers' initiatives, such as stablecoins. [...]
[...] The adaptation of services offered Financial intermediaries must also follow globalization and technological trends to provide adapted services. For example, the pressure on payment costs and cross-border payment speed is high. Europe has developed instant transfers as an alternative to systems controlled by American actors. Access to central bank money to settle serious transactions, particularly for SMEs, requires improvement. In addition, climate transition financing requires a review of risk management methods and a new method of covering data needs. 2.2. [...]
[...] The characteristics of the ongoing transformation of financial intermediation 1.1. A growing sector Since the 2008 crisis, financial intermediation in Europe has continued to grow at a sustained pace, albeit at a slower rate than in the previous decade. Between 2009 and 2019, the assets of financial intermediaries in the euro area increased by an average of per year, compared to between 1999 and 2008. In France, the main financial intermediaries are banks, insurance companies, and investment funds, which together accounted for 640% of GDP in assets in 2019. [...]
[...] For example, non-bank financing has progressed at an annual rate of 7.5% over the period 2013-2019, while bank financing has decreased by annually over the same period. These data show structural changes in the way funds are provided in the economy. In 2002, banks accounted for 75% of the total financing volume in the eurozone, while other non-bank intermediaries accounted for 5%. However, since 2019, these figures are 37% and respectively, indicating the emergence of alternative banking and a significant increase in the importance of non-bank actors. [...]
[...] However, over the past few decades, the landscape of financial intermediation has been redrawn by several significant factors. On the one hand, economic and financial crises have not spared Europe, particularly the 2008 crisis, which revealed the structural weaknesses of the traditional banking system. On the other hand, the advent of digitalization, driven by new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, blockchain, and cloud computing, has opened the door to new players and forms of intermediation. It is in this context that the central question of this article arises - is the European financial model really resilient, given these transformations? [...]
