In a recently-published transcript of a speech given at the FinTech Forum in Paris last month, French central bank Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau signalled that the Banque de France is seeking greater collaboration with FinTech startups focused on blockchain technology.

In the speech, de Galhau revealed that the central bank intends to open a new lab to strengthen its partnership with those blockchain firms and facilitate its broader goal of encouraging more FinTech innovation across France.

After reminding the gathered attendees that “there can be no lasting growth without a rise in productivity; and there can be no productivity without innovation and its diffusion,” de Galhau suggested that the FinTech innovators at the Forum were evidence that any worries about French economic “stagnation” were overblown.