(Bloomberg) -- Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau said fund raising for financial technology firms in the country could pick up at the start of next year as lower European Central Bank borrowing costs have reduced financing costs.
Investment into the sector was at €560 million ($612 million) in the first half of 2024, close the €568 million recorded in the same period last year, Villeroy said at the Forum Fintech conference in Paris.
“This stabilization is notably explained by the change in monetary policy — the last interest-rate increase was in September 2023, and we have since cut twice by 25 basis points, in June and September, due to a clear decline in inflation,” Villeroy said. “The first half of the year could therefore mark an inflection point and presage a resumption of growth in the Fintech ecosystem.”
The central banker also said France’s Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority — known by its French acronym ACPR — has seen a rise in the number of new projects.
He declined to comment further on monetary policy during the silent period before the ECB’s policy meeting on Thursday.
The Bank of France chief, who is chairman of the ACPR, also said the authority is ready to take the role of oversight of artificial intelligence in the financial sector, with particular attention for systems that attribute credit notes to individuals.
“The supervision of these systems indeed offers strong and quite obvious synergies with the prudential supervision of banks and insurance organizations,” Villeroy said.
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