Bpifrance, the French public investment bank, has gone live on Vault Payments, the payment processing platform from cloud-native banking technology company Thought Machine, for SEPA Instant Credit Transfer with TIPS.
As Bpifrance aims to modernise its entire payment infrastructure, it selected Vault Payments by Thought Machine to drive this transformation. The bank now processes SEPA Instant Payments, a new payment rail for the institution, on Vault Payments.
As part of the ongoing modernisation, Bpifrance will migrate SEPA Credit Transfers, SEPA Direct Debits, TARGET2 and SWIFT from its legacy systems.
“Thought Machine is an integral partner in our mission to modernise our technology stack at scale,” explained Lionel Chaine, chief information officer of Bpifrance. “Payments should be fast, efficient, and streamlined – that’s why we chose Vault Payments. The platform provides the clean, modern, and configurable foundation we need to offer world-class banking and payments.”
Bpifrance began its partnership with Thought Machine in 2022, selecting Vault Core as its core banking platform. It says the move increased operational speed fivefold and enabled the rapid launch of a commercial loan product.
Building on this success, Bpifrance also selected Vault Payments to overhaul its payments stack. The bank went live in production in just six months, optimising payment workflows and implementing custom TIPS flow enhancements tailored to its needs.
Migrating away from outdated technology
With Vault Payments, Bpifrance meets the EU’s regulatory deadline to receive SEPA instant payments by 9 January 2025, ensuring compliance with the 24/7, 10-second settlement rule. Processing transactions within milliseconds, Vault Payments optimises time to market, enhances automation, and minimises manual exception handling. Its real-time tracking, configurable workflows, and native ISO 20022 support provide payment lifecycle visibility while positioning Bpifrance for a smooth SWIFT MX migration and long-term innovation in the evolving European payments landscape.
Paul Taylor, founder and CEO of Thought Machine, also added: “Bpifrance is modernising at pace and migrating away from outdated technology. In 2022, they deployed our cloud-native core banking technology and are now at the forefront of payment modernisation by adopting Vault Payments. We are proud to strengthen our partnership with Bpifrance.”
Vault Payments is the industry’s first unified platform for processing all types of payments, including card payments (debit and credit) and account-to-account payments (instant, bulk clearing, RTGS, cross-border). Designed for flexibility and control, it enables Bpifrance to configure custom payment journeys, introduce new features independently, and innovate beyond traditional banking services.
Thought Machine’s technology is in production with a wide range of banks and fintech across the globe, including Standard Chartered, Intesa Sanpaolo, Lloyds Banking Group, and many more worldwide. Last year, Thought Machine became Mastercard’s first and only strategic partner offering end-to-end core banking and payments processing solutions for financial institutions.
