Conclusions of the public square dialogue: the financial sector confirms its commitment to financing the BITD.

Context: On March 20, 2025, the Ministers of Defense and Economy and Finance called on private investors and banking networks to mobilize in support of the defense industry, to preserve France’s strategic autonomy and sovereignty.

Reunited at the initiative of Ministers Catherine Vautrin and Roland Lescure, financial actors and industrialists took stock of this unprecedented year of mobilization.

One year after the call to mobilization, financing for the defense industry has changed significantly. Financing for French defense companies by major banking groups, historically high, saw a strong acceleration, increasing by +26% in 2025 to reach €46.6 billion. The clarification of banks’ exclusion policies has favored the increase in financing volumes for security and defense. The full compatibility of investments in the defense sector with the European framework for sustainable finance was clearly reaffirmed in a European Commission opinion on December 30, 2025.

The event confirmed a collective awareness: facing the imperative of rearmament, the Minister of Defense and Veterans Affairs observed that “the factory has become the new weapon.” The expected increase in defense budgets, embodied by the updating of the Military Programming Law (LPM), requires private investments to strengthen the industrial tool, increase production rates, and support innovation development.

The French armament dynamic is part of a movement at the European level. The challenge is twofold: to meet operational urgency while building an integrated and resilient European Defense Industrial and Technological Base (EDIDB).

The dialogue continues: For a year, bank representatives, insurers, and defense industry have streamlined their relationships. The Ministry of Defense and Veterans Affairs provides a framework and acts as a trusted intermediary to maintain these relationships, support the innovation and development ecosystem, ensure fair value sharing. This framework will be strengthened by promoting the goal of preserving cash flow in the defense industry value chain.

The Defense Investors Club, launched on June 23, 2025, embodies the ministry’s ambition: to familiarize current and potential financiers with the specifics of the EDIDB and enable companies to understand the constraints of the financing ecosystem.

Additionally, the Ministry of Economy, Finance, and Industrial, Energy, and Digital Sovereignty contributes to strengthening ties between financial, defense, and innovation ecosystems, by calling on major defense sector customers to become partners in the Tibi initiative dedicated to innovation financing, phase 3 of which is set to launch in the spring, after phases 1 and 2 held between 2019 and 2026.

Access to financial markets, illustrated on the same day as the conclusion of the marketplace dialogue by the announcement of the listing on the LiSE blockchain platform of ST Group, a defense industry company and supplier of the Rafale, is also a financing avenue for mid-sized companies in the EDIDB, increasing the mobilization of savings towards productive economy financing.