Bank of France publishes a 20-year review of the Groupe de Place Robustesse and sets priorities for operational crisis preparedness

The Bank of France has published a report reviewing 20 years of the Groupe de Place Robustesse (GPR), its public-private coordination forum for operational crisis management, following a large-scale G7 crisis-management exercise conducted in April 2024. The report describes how the GPR’s coordination and information-sharing arrangements are intended to prevent a major operational disruption from durably impairing the functioning of the financial system. The review looks back to the GPR’s creation in 2005 and highlights the development of what it describes as a robust and agile crisis-management framework, including links with broader European and international crisis-management arrangements. It also underlines the role of annual crisis exercises in testing preparedness for systemic scenarios, citing the April 2024 G7 exercise whose preparation was led by the Bank of France and which involved 23 financial authorities and more than 2,500 participants from the financial sector, including testing of cyber risk. The report notes that the GPR brings together, alongside the Bank of France, public authorities and agencies, the Directorate General of the Treasury, state services, Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, and private-sector participants including major banks, the French Banking Federation, payment system operators, and market infrastructures. Looking ahead, the report sets out a forward programme focused on improving cross-sector coordination, strengthening international collaboration, and exploring new types of risks and threats, building on experience gained in contexts including the Covid-19 pandemic and the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.