The Banque de France wants to revolutionise itself through innovation

The Banque de France has just designated three winners on the issue of authentication of credit institutions. This call was published in July 2022 and was led by the Banque de France's innovation laboratory "Le Lab".

THE FACTS

• In July 2022, the Banque de France published a call for contributions related to the digital identity project. More generally, the subject revolved around the digitalisation of "authentication of credit institutions".

• Of the twenty or so proposals received, three were accepted by the Banque de France:

  • A collaboration between IN Groupe (Imprimerie Nationale) and Orange to implement a distributed identity in Blockchain technology.

  • Qaxh.io, the result of work carried out within the BPCE group, which is based on the use of a Blockchain computer program to manage data exchange authorisations;

  • Archipels, a startup offering a decentralised identity platform on Blockchain.

• As a reminder, Archipels has set up a platform of trust services on the blockchain with four French trusted third-party issuers: Caisse des Dépôts, EDF, ENGIE and La Poste. Its purpose is to certify and verify documents, data tables or data.

CHALLENGES

• Exploring the use of digital identity: as part of the digitisation of certain processes, the Banque de France hopes to use it as a simplification tool for its internal processes, but also for its partners.

  • Valérie Fasquelle, DGA of the IS Directorate General, stated that "for the Banque de France, digital identity and its management are major challenges in terms of innovation and present opportunities for our business lines, including our work on central bank digital money".

• Accentuate the Banque de France's innovation policy: support their businesses in identifying opportunities and implementing innovative solutions.

• Inspire the European digital identity component: the Banque de France also stated that the tests could be used for "work on the central bank digital currency".

PUTTING IT INTO PERSPECTIVE

• As for the European EPI project, NOBID (an international consortium of digital identity experts from the Nordic countries) has been chosen to implement a cross-border payment pilot as part of the European Commission's European Digital Portfolio project. The inclusion of payments in EUDIW seems to be a priority for the European authorities in their quest for the same sovereignty as the EPI project.

• The Banque de France follows the Bank of Spain's initiative of December 2022. The Bank of Spain had launched a call for tender in the framework of the wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDN) project. The Bank of Spain expressed at the time that this initiative was not dependent on the ECB's ongoing work on the digital euro. That it wanted to explore the benefits of wholesale MNBCs, to compare these models with traditional ones in order to assess their advantages and disadvantages.

• South Korea also launched an initiative in the last quarter of 2022 on the topic of digital identity. The aim of the project is to create digital identity cards based on the blockchain. Local authorities no longer require a plastic card for identification. A simple smartphone is now sufficient to access the information contained in the old physical devices.