Mission Smart : le Challenge

Blockchain, artificial intelligence, dematerialisation of payments, DeFi, new manifestations of the cyber risk... The increasing digitalisation of financial activities is a source of opportunities and points of attention. Le Lab embodies the innovation approach of Banque de France, to anticipate and accompany these transformations. Consistent with Banque de France missions, le 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.).

The aim of le Lab is thus to identify avenues of innovation and facilitate their operational implementation by experimenting on business lines use cases within Banque de France, but also in relation to its ecosystem. It therefore works in close collaboration with and in support of all Banque de France directorate general teams.

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

Le Lab provides a wide range of resources and skills to identify problems, seek solutions and experiment on innovative topics.

There are plenty of areas of innovation in collaboration with Banque de France business lines: digitalisation of processes, payments and blockchain, data and AI or, more broadly, cyber security.

Faced with similar technological challenges, central banks are increasingly interacting in termsof innovation, understanding and managing the risks of the financial system. They are also developing reflexions with various public and private partners.

In this context, the activities of le Lab fall within a network of cooperation with other central banks, start-ups, universities and any other actor sharing common innovation topics.