Bank of France interview sets out cyber risk private credit and climate priorities for banks and insurers

In a BFM Business interview published by the Bank of France, Emmanuelle Assouan, secretary general of France’s Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority, outlined current supervisory priorities for banks and insurers. She said cyber risk remains at the top of the agenda and that the Digital Operational Resilience Act, in force since early 2025, gives supervisors and firms a framework for cyber governance, penetration testing, incident reporting and oversight of third party service providers. The main operational challenge is to identify vulnerabilities and apply patches more quickly. She said private credit exposures remain limited on balance sheets, at about 0.4% for banks and 1% for insurers, despite growth of roughly 25% in 2025. Supervisors still lack enough data to build a consolidated view across direct exposures, fund financing and investor financing, and she flagged potential contagion from the larger United States market. On climate risk, she said supervision focuses on institution level risk diagnosis, prudential transition plans and governance, drawing on long horizon climate stress tests, while insurers face particular pressure from rising claims and premiums that could eventually affect insurability without stronger adaptation and prevention.