Digital transformation will be key to recovery

Interview with

Alain Busac, Director of IS for Market and Payment Systems, Banque de France

The Banque de France is the French pillar of the Eurosystem, a federal system formed by the European Central Bank and the national central banks of the euro area.
Its three main missions are monetary strategy, financial stability and the provision of economic services to the community. Following government announcements, the Banque de France has done everything possible to ensure public service continuity and serve businesses and people during the lockdown. 

The Banque de France has implemented exceptional measures to support businesses and people and help them cope with this crisis. How would you characterize this period? 

This health crisis is compounded by an economic one. In addition to our social responsibility initiatives that Banque de France has undertaken to support the medical and healthcare facilities and practitioners, our mission is and it will be central, as we’re entering a new phase.

This crisis is exceptional, both in terms of its health, social and economic impacts as well as its scale and duration. It seems to me that one of the lessons learned is that digital transformation has made it possible to facilitate the crisis management and it will be a lever for a way out of it.

What is the role of technology in mitigating the Covid-19 outbreak?

It is indeed difficult to talk about digital transformation without mentioning the issue of data management. Whether in terms of health or economics, the crisis has also highlighted the importance of data and its (good) processing to improve cognitive biases in the management of activities and decision-making. However, digitized operational processes are based on standardized data which do not allow significant changes in the context and conditions in which activities are carried out to be taken into account. It is an organization that allows unitary operational processes to be optimized in nominal situations but it does not allow situations that evolve significantly overall to be managed. Data will make it possible to go beyond digitalization towards innovation and the disruption of business models.

What do you expect from a technology partner?

VERMEG’s initial communication has dealt with the support and adaptation of companies to the situation. You shared your business continuity plan and reassured us on your ability to continue supporting your customers in the proper functioning and adaptation of their information systems during the crisis.

This first aspect, while it may seem obvious, deserves to be recalled: the role of suppliers (ours as well as those of financial institutions, in the broadest sense) is to support their customers with their critical business processes in the field of finance; this is a condition for survival and a lever for rebound.

The crisis has highlighted a second aspect: the need to rapidly adapt business processes and the information systems underpinning them. To give you an example, the Banque de France experienced this through the implementation of the Eurosystem’s purchasing program with the ability to take new issuers and securities as collateral in its PRISME 7 system.

In carrying out these critical adjustments, we have been able to appreciate the ease and agility offered by VERMEG’s products, both in terms of adapting our operational processes as well as implementing new products and/or services quickly.

The crisis has changed the way many companies do business with dispersed remote working, which has required the implementation of new ways of working and control. This is an opportunity to pursue the digitalization of processes within the company or with the ecosystem in which it operates. Internally, and especially in the world of finance, the need of having fully digitized processes and integrating the „four-eyes principle “ (or even „six-eyes principle”) directly into the applications that underpin operational processes is of vital importance. Externally, it is a question of extending the processes by integrating partners and relying on exchange standards, including their correct digital identity.