Lab Banque de France

Blockchain, artificial intelligence, dematerialisation of payments, DeFi, new manifestations of cyber risk... The increasing digitalisation of financial activities is a source of opportunities and points of attention. The Lab embodies the innovation approach within the Banque de France, to anticipate and support these transformations. In line with the Bank's missions, the Lab innovates in areas of action that are in line with technological change (finance and payments, supervision, studies and statistics, relations with the public, etc.).

In concrete terms, the Lab has been designed to identify avenues of innovation and facilitate their operational implementation by experimenting with business use cases within the Banque de France itself, but also in conjunction with its ecosystem. It therefore works in close collaboration with and in support of all the Banque de France's general management teams.

In line with a "think & do tank" type of organisation, the Lab's approach is to get straight to the heart of the matter by doing: "learning by doing".  

Le Lab provides a wide range of resources and skills to identify problems, seek solutions and experiment with innovative topics. There is no shortage of areas of innovation in collaboration with the Bank's business lines: payments and blockchain, data and AI or, more broadly, cyber security.

Faced with the same technological challenges,central banks are increasingly interacting in termsof innovation, understanding and managing risks to the financial system. They are also developing ideas with numerous public and private partners.

In this context, the Lab's work is part of a network of collaborations with other central banks, start-ups, universities and any other actor with common innovation topics.