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French authorities and payment industry leaders unveiled a new national payments strategy for 2025–30 during a key meeting of the National Committee for Means of Payment (CNMP).
Building on the 2019–24 plan, which focused on cashless payments, the updated roadmap incorporates cash and aligns with the strategic objectives of both the European Commission and the Eurosystem.
The new strategy focuses on three main pillars, each with specific objectives.
It aims to ensure secure, resilient, inclusive, and sustainable payments; to promote and support new payment methods and technologies; and to strengthen French and EU autonomy in payments.
"I am delighted with this new strategy … because by covering all means of payment, from cash to new dematerialised uses, it truly reinforces the freedom of choice of all users in their means of payment,” said Erick Lacourrège, director-general of payment methods at the Banque de France and chair of the CNMP.
He added that the strategy also demonstrates the “very strong ambition of the entire payments ecosystem to strengthen French and European autonomy for this activity that is essential to our daily lives and our economy”.
“The success of this strategy belongs to everyone, professionals and citizens. The CNMP will naturally play its full part in it, through concrete actions and regular monitoring of key indicators."
Tackling fraud
Fraud is a key component of the French strategy for payments and the CNMP says that although regulatory requirements such as strong customer authentication (SCA) have helped increase security, fraud has now shifted toward identity theft and manipulation to approve fraudulent payments, as has happened in other jurisdictions such as the UK.
“Faced with the rapid evolution of digital payment methods and the continuous renewal of threats, it is necessary to ensure the security of all payment methods,” the CNMP says.
As part of the 2025–30 strategy, the Payment Methods Security Observatory (OSMP) will lead national efforts to combat fraud, particularly in vulnerable areas such as certain card payments, checks and the misuse of telecommunications.
The OSMP will also collaborate with the telecom sector to enforce legal obligations and implement technical measures to prevent fraud, and will monitor innovations in payment security and issue recommendations to maintain long-term protection.
In cash-related services, the CNMP will support anti-counterfeiting efforts, while the Banque de France will launch an online training programme for merchants handling cash, starting in 2025.
Leading on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues
The CNMP has also jumped ahead of its counterparts elsewhere in the regulatory space by focusing on reducing the carbon and environmental footprint of the entire payment chain, whether cashless or cash-based, saying in the strategy that this has become a crucial issue.
According to the document, a key step in this effort is to understand the environmental impact of each payment method throughout its life cycle, and the goal is to identify ways to minimise these impacts and improve the overall environmental and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions performance of the payments sector.
For cash, the CNMP says that this will be achieved via two approaches: first, by identifying and promoting good environmental practices within the fiduciary sector; and second, by establishing standardised processes for data collection and reporting to consistently measure the carbon and environmental footprint of cash operations, building on work by the Eurosystem regarding euro banknotes.
For cashless payments, identifying ways to reduce their environmental impact is equally important, according to the CNMP, which says that “better identifying the levers to reduce these impacts is essential”.
In the document, the CNMP says it will coordinate national studies on the carbon footprint of various payment methods to develop a clearer understanding of their environmental impact, enabling more targeted efforts to reduce it.
Promoting sovereignty
The new French strategy has a particular focus on sovereignty, suggesting that the thinking of Brussels policymakers has spread across the EU’s capitals.
“In a geopolitical and economic context disrupted by several major crises, the European payments ecosystem must demonstrate its ability to continue its integration, in particular by setting up pan-European projects and consolidating industrial-scale players,” the CNMP says.
In the strategy, it warns that the “growing incursion of foreign technological players into the payment chain increases the risks of external dependencies and makes the market's capacity to deploy new solutions adapted to the needs of European users more uncertain, without depending on the development strategies of international players.”
France’s payment system remains predominantly national, with key assets such as its card payment network (Bank Cards – CB) and the STET payment system both leading in European transaction volumes.
The CNMP says that the goal is to strengthen these assets while exploring opportunities to further develop them, both nationally and across Europe, and solidify their role as major players in the European payments sector.
The CNMP strategy commits to working “to preserve the central place of the CB network in the processing of national transactions, in particular by encouraging initiatives to anchor co-badging practices over the long term in all card usage segments,” including what it feels are the most innovative ones, such as mobile payments, online payments and subscriptions.
Furthermore, to ensure free choice and transparency for users in terms of acceptance, the regulatory forum has said that it will contribute to deepening knowledge of the commercial and pricing practices of the various players in the electronic payment chain, and will be able to provide its expertise to the competent authorities with regard to assessing the consistency of these practices with national and European legislation.
Regarding the European Payments Initiative (EPI), which recently launched its mobile wallet Wero in France, the CNMP has said that it will continue to work to mobilise the French market around its solutions, as well as “any other project contributing to strengthening European integration and strategic autonomy in terms of retail payments”, which leaves the door open to other initiatives.
According to the CNMP, this will include identifying new levers to promote the adoption of these solutions, particularly among merchants.
“This alternative will also make it possible to promote European expertise in payments, by contributing to the expansion of the uses of SEPA instant transfers,” the CNMP says, adding that this objective also involves preserving France's strong position in card payments, where it has a been leading player at European level in terms of volumes and amounts processed with the CB bank card group.
Reaction
Gabriel Cumenge, deputy director of banks and general interest financing at France’s general directorate of the Treasury, said: “The new national strategy, which will guide the actions of the market between 2025 and 2030, underlines the importance of French and European sovereignty in terms of payments.”
“The development of new innovative and secure payment solutions, taking advantage of instant transfers, will be the best guarantee of our strategic autonomy, while guaranteeing users' freedom of choice in terms of cross-border payments."
In addition, Florence Ségurel, chair of the payment means commission of the French Association of Corporate Treasurers (AFTE) and vice-chair of the CNMP, described the strategy as a “founding act for building the payment of tomorrow and finding a new balance.”
“Payment is at the heart of our companies' activity, at the heart of our country's economy, and at the heart of the life of each citizen,” said Ségurel.
“Faced with dominant international players who impose their prices and technologies, thus shaping the uses of the future to their advantage, it was essential to define an ambitious payment strategy.”
According to Ségurel, the implementation will make it possible to promote transparency of practices, promote innovations and support European solutions.
“Thanks to the contribution within the CNMP of all stakeholders in the French ecosystem, including players in commerce, concrete actions for the common interest have been defined.”
Her counterpart as vice-chair, Thierry Laborde, who is also chairman of the payment methods orientation commission at the French Banking Federation (FBF), also hailed the new strategy.
He said that “the fight against payment method fraud guides many actions carried out by banks with their customers and by the FBF, as demonstrated by the major national campaign currently underway to raise collective awareness."
