This article focuses on a pivotal period in the trajectory of the French economy, during which the system of financing the economy shifted from a government-based system to a market-based system. To this end, it analyzes a set of monetary and financial reforms developed and implemented between 1984 and 1986 by the cabinet of the Minister of Economy and Finance Pierre Bérégovoy and the Treasury administration. Based on a corpus of archives from the ministerial cabinet and the Treasury department, it examines a series of deregulation measures taken by the Socialist government that laid the foundations for the financialization of the economy in the 1990s. It also highlights France's unique approach to reform, which focused on a controlled and organized opening of capital markets. It shows how these reforms gradually transformed the role of the state in the economy by introducing liberal mechanisms based on competition and negotiability, contributing to a form of depoliticization of decision making. The article raises the question of the links between the state and markets and highlights the bureaucratic role of senior civil servants working out of the public eye, even though the policy was ostensibly designed to curb monopolies and rents with a view to "lowering the cost of money" for the least favored members of society. As such, it serves as an excellent case study of state–financial market relations for larger comparative reflection about “financialization.”