AI in banking | Part 3 : Why “100% sovereign” is a myth

22 Sep 2026

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The True Cost of Banking Sovereignty:

In the third and final episode of our conversation with Eric Bierry, CEO of SBS and Deputy CEO of 74 Software, breaks down what banks really risk when it comes to cloud sovereignty, data control, and AI, and why full independence from US and Chinese tech is impossible. The discussion moves from AI opportunity to a harder question: what happens when banks try to go fully sovereign?

Key takeaway: sovereignty has a price tag, and it’s steep

Eric shares a real-world example involving CDC, the French public bank. When CDC asked to migrate a regulatory reporting service from public cloud (AWS) to France’s fully sovereign SecNumCloud infrastructure, the cost more than tripled, even though the underlying product and service stayed exactly the same. His conclusion: true 100% sovereignty isn’t achievable for any bank today. Even domestic infrastructure relies on non-European chips and software somewhere in the stack.

The two risks banks are actually managing

Rather than treating sovereignty as black-and-white, banks are running structured risk assessments across their business processes, weighing:

Immediate exposure risk: regulatory failure, cyber incidents, or losing access to critical resources
Long-term sustainability risk: whether their infrastructure choices hold up over the next 10–15 years

Banks like BNP Paribas and BPCE are already investing billions in their own private cloud infrastructure in Europe, proof that sovereignty decisions are selective, not all-or-nothing.

Who stays in control of the data?

Eric also unpacks how tier 1 & tier 2 banks (with strong internal IT) manage data governance differently than tier 3 & tier 4 banks, who rely on SBS as a “one-stop shop” for security, data management, and AI control, while drawing a clear line on what is and isn’t their core responsibility.

What’s next for AI in banking?

The episode closes on a forward-looking note: Eric’s take on AI’s biggest opportunity isn’t about doing more, it’s about freeing up time to focus on what actually matters, for individuals, teams, and institutions alike.

Listen to the full episode to hear Eric Beery’s complete breakdown of cloud sovereignty economics, risk mapping, and what the next decade of banking infrastructure could look like.

Keywords woven in naturally for search/AI-answer visibility: banking cloud sovereignty, SBS CEO Eric Beery, sovereign cloud cost, SecNumCloud, AI in banking, data control banks, BNP Paribas private cloud, BPCE cloud investment.