I have no hesitation in saying that from now on there must be a limit on the remuneration of executives and dealers. There have been too many excesses; there have been too many scandals. So either the financial industry agrees on acceptable practices or the government of the Republic will settle the problem through legislation before the year is out.

Executives must not have the status of managing agents and at the same time enjoy the guarantees linked to a labour contract. They must not receive free shares. Their remuneration must be indexed to the business’s actual economic performance. They must not be able to claim a golden parachute when they have committed errors or caused their businesses huge problems. And if the executives have a stake in the company’s performance, which is a good thing, its other employees, particularly the lowest-paid, must too. If the executives have stock options, the other employees must also have them or, failing that, benefit from a profit-sharing system.

Those are some simple principles based on common sense and elementary ethics — and they are something I’m not going to back down on.

Executives get high pay because they bear heavy responsibilities. But you can’t want to be very well paid and not want to shoulder your responsibilities. The one goes with the other.

…

We have to find out where the blame lies and those responsible for this collapse must at least pay some financial penalty.

Secondly, we must regulate the banks to regulate the system. Since the banks are at the heart of the system.…

The crisis we are going through should lead to a large-scale restructuring of the whole global banking sector. Given what has just happened and the importance of the stakes for the future of our economy, it goes without saying that in France the State will play an active role.

We are going to have to tackle the problem of the complexity of savings products and transaction opacity so that everyone can make a real assessment of the risks they take.

But we’ll also have to give thought to the issues which cause anger such as tax havens, the circumstances in which dealers can engage in short selling, allowing them to speculate by selling shares they haven’t got, and all-day trading, allowing them to buy and sell shares at any time – and we know the role these play in markets spiralling out of control and the creation of speculative bubbles.

We’re going to have to ponder the obligation to value assets at market prices which is proving so destabilizing in a crisis.

We are going to have to supervise the rating agencies which – and I stress this – have been failing in their job.…

But we wouldn’t completely sort out the financial system if at the same time we didn’t seek to end the currency disorder.

Exchange rates are at the heart of the financial crisis just as they are at the heart of the distortions affecting global trade. And if we don’t take care, monetary dumping will end up generating extremely violent trade wars, so paving the way for the worst protectionism. A French manufacturer can make all the productivity gains in the world. He can, at a pinch, compete with the Chinese workers’ low wages, but he can’t compensate for the undervaluing of the Chinese currency.…

So I repeat just how necessary I think it is for heads of State and government of the main countries concerned to meet before the end of the year to learn the lessons of the financial crisis and coordinate their efforts to restore confidence.…