FRANCE Law and Practice Contributed by: Hubert de Vauplane and Hugo Bordet, Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP
ery versus payment) based on the interoper - ability between the DL3S blockchain of the BdF for the euro cash tokenised part and external blockchains for the security tokenised part. The trial focused in particular on transactions on the assets and liabilities side of tokenised funds of Ofi Invest AM, whose register was kept in the private blockchain operated by IZNES. In December 2024, the BdF launched an RFP (Request for Proposal) for wholesale financial transactions in central bank money. The Euro - system will explore how wholesale financial transactions recorded on DLT platforms can be settled in central bank money. The objective of this initiative is (i) to consolidate and develop the ongoing work of the Eurosystem central banks in this area, and (ii) to understand how different solutions could facilitate the interaction between TARGET services and DLT platforms. The Eurosystem’s exploratory work consists of test runs (real operations for a limited period) and experiments (fictitious operations in a test environment) using three solutions based on interoperability between market DLT platforms and Eurosystem infrastructures for settlement in central bank money: • the Trigger solution provided by the Deutsche Bundesbank; • the TIPS Hash-Link solution provided by the Banca d’Italia; and • the Full-DLT interoperability solution provided by the BdF. The Eurosystem’s exploratory work will focus on the settlement of financial transactions car - ried out on DLT and denominated in euros. The use cases covered may include the settlement- delivery of financial assets (delivery versus pay - ment, DvP) and currency exchanges (payment
versus payment, PvP), as well as cash payments in central bank money. The Broader Fintech Ecosystem Concerning the broader fintech ecosystem, there are presently around 800 active fintech companies in France. France’s attractiveness is enhanced by various factors, such as the sup - port of regulatory agencies and public authori - ties for the fintech industry, the quality of French engineers, and the wide network of start-up incubators and accelerators. France’s attrac - tiveness is also enhanced by the organisation of numerous forums, such as the Paris Fintech Forum, the Paris Blockchain Week Summit and the ACPR-AMF Fintech Forum. These events facilitate exchange and reflection between the various stakeholders. The French fintech scene covers a wide range of businesses, among them, mobile payments (Lydia); artificial intelligence applied to insurance (Shift); personal fundraising apps (Leetchi); fin - tech specialised in start-ups and freelancers (Shine, Qonto); dematerialised meal vouchers (Swile); crowdlending and crowdfunding plat - forms (Lendix, Younited, Unilend, Soul Invest); robo-advisers (Advize, Yomoni); insurtech (Alan, Luko); and payroll processors (Payfit). After a year demonstrating the acceleration of French fintech, France has strengthened its posi - tion for 2023 with the emergence of new players (such as Ecovadis, Pigment, Sweep, Seyna and ClubFunding) in the state’s programme (French Tech Next40/120) dedicated to the support and growth of start-ups at a global level. In 2024, Pennylane and Pigment joined the ranks of unicorns, becoming the only two new French companies to reach this valuation. However, this achievement is accompanied by a more con -
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