Bank

Context

In France, 7 million people are affected by hearing loss, including 500,000 with profound or severe deafness; around 100,000 people speak French Sign Language (Fondation pour l'Audition / DREES; French Ministry of Culture). Over the past five years, 23% of users have given up on at least one right when dealing with public services, with people with disabilities disproportionately affected (Défenseur des droits, October 2025). At the end of 2024, France had 33,024 bank branches spread across more than 300 different institutions (European Central Bank; ACPR, 2024). Beyond access ramps and wheelchair-adapted spaces, bank reception today offers no dedicated solution for deaf, signing customers.

Legal framework

The law of 11 February 2005 recognises French Sign Language as a language in its own right. The 2016 French Digital Republic Act imposes a telephone accessibility requirement, extended to companies with over €250 million in revenue. The ordinance of 6 September 2023 provides for fines of up to €75,000 for an individual and 1% of revenue for a legal entity in case of non-compliance. From 1 October 2026, the accessibility requirement will cover 100% of public reception hours, up from 50% today.

Use case

A deaf or signing customer visits a branch for a routine transaction (opening an account, advice, a complaint). The advisor and the customer each speak their own language; translation happens in real time on their own devices, with no physical interpreter and no exchange transmitted to a third-party server.

Architecture

V1 (prototype)

A catalogue of words and phrases specific to banking vocabulary (routine transactions, products, complaints), developed with industry professionals and people fluent in sign language.

V2 (target)

Progressive extension of the catalogue to all banking operations, interoperable with the generic catalogue of the consumer app.

Patents involved

• Multilingual translation
• Multilingual translation refinement

Indicators

• Banking catalogue words and phrases covered — 80 words and 60 phrases in V1, extended to 200 phrases for commercial deployment
• Pilot branches equipped — to be defined with the funder

Estimated budget

€150,000 for the complete development of the banking sector catalogue. Funding for a sector-specific prototype can be carried by a single institution or pooled among several institutions within the same network.

Funder profile sought

A banking institution or financial group wishing to fund the development of the banking sector catalogue in exchange for visibility and priority access to the prototype.