EDF Launches FINABe Advisory Board to Accelerate Global Nuclear Investment

EDF's Chief Financial Officer Claude Laruelle put the financing challenge bluntly at the Nuclear Energy Summit 2026 in Paris: "For many countries considering new nuclear programmes, securing credible financing solutions is now as critical as selecting the right technology." The remedy, at least in EDF's view, is FINABe, the Financing and Investing in Nuclear Advisory Board EDF, which the company formally launched at a signing ceremony held at the EDF Lounge during the Summit.

The board brings together eight financial institutions: ABN AMRO Bank, BNP Paribas, Bpifrance Assurance Export, Crédit Agricole CIB, HSBC, La Caisse (Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec), Royal Bank of Canada, and SFIL. Vakis Ramany, EDF's Senior Vice President for International Nuclear Development, has been appointed chair. The summit itself was organised by France in close collaboration with the IAEA, giving the launch a high-profile multilateral backdrop.

FINABe's stated mandate covers both large-scale nuclear new-build and small modular reactors. Through coordinated dialogue with participating financial experts, the board aims to identify market expectations, promote best-practice sharing, and contribute to the gradual development of robust financial mechanisms for nuclear investment. Laruelle framed EDF's ambition directly: "Through FINABe, we seek to capitalise on our unique expertise and work hand-in-hand with leading financial institutions to craft robust financing frameworks and support the development of new nuclear capacities."

Not every participating institution is signalling an appetite to write cheques. Arthur van Dijk, head of New Energies and Infrastructure at Netherlands-based ABN AMRO, was specific about his bank's posture: it will participate in an advisory capacity, focused on financing and investment frameworks that support informed decision-making within the context of the European energy transition. "As a financial institution, we support the financing of reliable and low-carbon energy solutions, including renewable energy, grid flexibility and decarbonisation technologies," van Dijk said, a framing that positions ABN AMRO's involvement as consultative rather than a commitment to nuclear project finance.

The FINABe signing ceremony at 17:30 in the EDF Lounge capped a Summit day that included a dedicated financing panel, Panel 2, titled "Financing nuclear energy projects: a key enabler for deployment at scale." That session drew a keynote from Alex Fitzsimmons, Acting US Under Secretary of Energy, and was moderated by Roland Lescure, France's Minister of Economics, Finance and Industrial, Energetic and Digital Sovereignty. Panelists included Odile Renaud-Basso of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Valerie Levkov from the World Bank Group, Ambroise Fayolle of the European Investment Bank, and sector representatives from BNP Paribas CIB and HSBC.

The depth of that panel lineup underscores what EDF is betting on with FINABe: that nuclear new-build financing is moving from a niche conversation to a mainstream institutional priority. The open questions are the ones that always follow an advisory board launch: what formal outputs it will produce, on what timeline, and whether the dialogue eventually translates into actual financing commitments for the gigawatt-scale and SMR projects now advancing across multiple markets.