A French bank may refuse to open an ordinary current account, but that refusal is not the end of the matter for a British person who is genuinely domiciled in France. After Brexit, nationality, immigration status, tax residence and banking residence are often mixed together, even though they answer different legal questions. The key route is the French droit au compte, meaning a statutory right to have a deposit account opened with a bank designated by the Banque de France. It is available to a person domiciled in France who does not already have a French deposit account, provided the identity and anti-money-laundering checks can be completed.

This guide explains what the right covers, what a visitor or second-home owner cannot assume, how to obtain a refusal certificate, when fifteen days of silence count as a refusal, and how to assemble a Banque de France application. It also separates a lawful compliance refusal from a possible nationality or residence discrimination issue. The procedure is personal: it concerns an individual account for a person living in France, not the purchase of a French property, the creation of a company or the opening of a business account. The practical objective is to create a documented sequence that a bank, the Banque de France and, if necessary, a lawyer can verify.

I. Can a French bank refuse a British resident an account after Brexit?

A. Does a British citizen in France have a right to a French bank account?

The starting point is not the colour of your passport. It is your connection with France and the existence of another French deposit account. Article L312-1 of the French Monetary and Financial Code says, in the official text, that a qualifying person “A droit à l’ouverture d’un compte de dépôt”. In English, that means that the person has a right to the opening of a deposit account, subject to the conditions set by the statute. The same article covers “Toute personne physique ou morale domiciliée en France” — any individual or legal person domiciled in France — if that person is without such an account in France.

That rule matters after Brexit. A British national who has made France their home can fall within the first category because the statutory test is domicile in France, not French nationality. The fact that the person holds a Withdrawal Agreement residence permit, a French residence card or a long-stay visa may help prove the reality of the move, but the immigration document is not itself the source of the right to an account. The official GOV.UK guidance on living in France explains the residence-document context for British nationals, including the position of people protected by the Withdrawal Agreement. It does not replace the French banking test.

“Domiciled in France” must be approached carefully. A person who has a settled home, an address and an actual life in France is in a stronger position than a visitor who spends a few weeks at a French holiday home. A British owner of a second home is not automatically a French-domiciled resident merely because the property exists. The 90-day rule for a British visitor, a visa, a residence permit, a tax residence assessment and the banking concept of domicile may overlap in the evidence but are not interchangeable. The application should therefore show the real residential situation rather than simply state that the applicant owns a French address.

The second condition is the absence of a French deposit account. The legal text refers to being without “un tel compte en France”. A French collective account does not necessarily prevent an individual account application: Article L312-1 expressly states that holding a collective account does not prevent an individual account under the statutory conditions. That is important for a married couple or civil partners who have only a joint account but need an individual account for salary, benefits, direct debits or personal transactions. The facts still need to be presented accurately. Do not sign a declaration saying that no French account exists if a personal deposit account is already open.

The right is not a promise that your preferred bank must accept you as an ordinary customer. A bank may decide not to enter an ordinary relationship, subject to the written information duties that apply to a refusal. Article L312-1 also allows an establishment to reject an application where the applicant can benefit from the Banque de France designation route. The legal remedy is therefore not to argue indefinitely with the first branch. It is to obtain evidence of the refusal and activate the designation mechanism.

Nor is the right an entitlement to an overdraft, a mortgage, a premium debit card, a chequebook without limits, investment services or credit. It is a right to a deposit account with a defined package of basic services. The bank may still assess a loan separately, decline an overdraft and apply the applicable tariff for services that are outside the statutory package. A British resident who needs a mortgage for a property purchase is dealing with a different legal and commercial question. This article addresses the personal payment account needed to live in France.

There is also an important distinction between an ordinary refusal and an anti-money-laundering impossibility. Banks must know who their customers are and understand the relationship they are asked to establish. Article L561-5 of the Monetary and Financial Code requires the bank to “Identifient leur client” and to verify the identification documents. Article R561-5 specifies, for an individual, the collection of the applicant’s surname, given names, date and place of birth. A passport, a reliable French address and a coherent explanation of the move are therefore practical building blocks, not optional decoration.

If the bank cannot complete those checks, Article L561-8 of the Monetary and Financial Code says that it “n’établit ni ne poursuit aucune relation d’affaires”: it neither establishes nor continues a business relationship. The provision also applies where a bank has been designated by the Banque de France and still cannot meet the identification requirements. That is why an applicant should not treat every request for residence evidence, tax-residence information or source-of-funds documents as discrimination. The right to an account does not remove the bank’s legal duty to verify identity and risk.

On the other hand, “Brexit” is not a complete legal explanation for a refusal from a person domiciled in France. A bank should distinguish between a document that is missing, an identification problem, a risk assessment that it can lawfully make, and a blanket refusal based only on British nationality. The evidence of what was actually said or written will decide whether the matter is a normal refusal, an incomplete application or a potential discrimination case.

B. What documents should you prepare before asking a bank to open the account?

The strongest first application is short, written and complete. Ask expressly for an individual deposit account in France and keep the date on which the bank received the request. A branch appointment can be useful, but a file that exists only in a telephone conversation is difficult to prove. Send a follow-up email listing the documents provided and ask the bank to confirm whether anything specific is missing. If you are applying online, save the confirmation page, application reference, automated email and every request for further information.

Your evidence pack should normally include the following items, adapted to the facts. The bank’s identity checklist should be read with Article R561-5, which specifies the core identity information to collect from an individual:

• A valid British passport or other accepted identity document, with a clear copy and the applicant’s current details.
• Proof of the French address, such as a recent utility bill, tenancy document, household insurance certificate, tax notice, accommodation certificate or another document accepted by the bank. If you are hosted, prepare the host’s statement and the host’s own address evidence as well.
• Your French residence document where one exists: for example, a Withdrawal Agreement residence permit, an ordinary residence card, a long-stay visa or evidence of a pending renewal. Explain the document rather than assuming that a branch employee will recognise its status.
• Evidence of the practical move to France, where the residential position is not obvious: employment or pension evidence, registration with a public body, a French tax number, household contracts or other documents that show a real home rather than a short visit.
• A clear list of the accounts you already hold, including a declaration about whether you have a French individual deposit account. A joint account should be identified as a joint account, not hidden.
• Information needed for tax and compliance questions, including your UK and French tax-residence position, the countries in which you are tax resident and the origin of the income that will pass through the account.
• If requested, documents explaining the source of funds: pension statements, employment income, sale proceeds, savings history or inheritance papers. Supply only what is relevant, but answer a legitimate request coherently and in the format requested.

The official framework for the documents used in the right-to-account procedure is the French Order of 31 July 2015 setting the supporting documents for the right to an account. Banks may ask for additional material to satisfy their separate customer-identification and anti-money-laundering duties. The purpose of the file is not to overwhelm the bank with every paper you possess. It is to remove the avoidable reasons for delay: an expired passport, an unexplained address, an inconsistent date of arrival or a refusal to answer the tax-residence question.

Ask the bank to state its decision in writing. The document is called an attestation de refus d’ouverture de compte, meaning a certificate confirming the refusal to open an account. Under Article L312-1, the refusing bank must provide that certificate systematically, free of charge and without delay, and tell the applicant that the Banque de France can designate another establishment. The refusal certificate should identify the bank and applicant, date the refusal and state the reason where the law requires a reason. Keep the envelope, electronic metadata and the exact version supplied.

If the bank refuses to give the certificate, make a written request that records the refusal to provide it. Do not create a confrontation at the counter. Send a dated letter or email referring to your application, attaching the proof of submission and asking for the statutory certificate. If the bank claims that your file is incomplete, ask for a precise list of the missing documents and supply them if they are reasonably available. A bank is entitled to complete its checks; you need to demonstrate that you tried to complete the process in good faith.

The evidence of the application also protects you if the bank simply stops replying. Article R312-6-1 of the Monetary and Financial Code treats silence by a bank for fifteen days from receipt of an account-opening request, or from a hand-delivered request at the branch, as “un refus d’ouvrir le compte”, meaning a refusal to open the account. The fifteen-day period is not safely measured from the first day you visited a website. Preserve proof of the bank’s receipt: a registered delivery record, a branch-stamped copy, an email acknowledgement or a platform timestamp that identifies the request.

At the end of the fifteen days, ask the bank for the attestation and the reason. If it has not replied, keep the proof of silence and include it in the Banque de France file. A clear chronology should show the request date, the date of receipt, any missing-document request, your response and the date on which the fifteen-day period expired. This is often more useful than a long complaint explaining how stressful the refusal has been.

For a British resident, the application should also separate residence evidence from nationality. A bank may need to know whether the applicant is a resident protected by the Withdrawal Agreement, a post-Brexit long-stay resident or a visitor. That question can be answered with documents. It should not be answered by changing the facts, using a friend’s address or presenting an old UK address as the principal home if France is now the real residence. Inconsistencies can affect both the banking decision and the credibility of a later challenge.

II. How do you use the Banque de France procedure and challenge an unfair refusal?

A. What is the right-to-account procedure after a bank says no?

Once you have a refusal certificate, or evidence that the bank’s silence has lasted fifteen days, you can ask the Banque de France to designate a credit institution. The Banque de France is the French central bank. In this procedure it does not become your commercial bank; it selects an establishment that must open the deposit account if the statutory and compliance documents can be completed. The request can be made by you, by the refusing bank if you ask it to act for you, or by certain public bodies, approved consumer associations and non-profit organisations that agree to transmit the file.

Article L312-1 states that the Banque de France designates an establishment near the applicant’s home, or another place chosen by the applicant, within one working day after receiving the required documents. The designated bank must then open the account within three working days after receiving all the documents it needs. Those are legal time limits for a complete file, not a guarantee that a debit card will be delivered, that online banking will be activated or that every direct debit will work on the same day. A missing document, an identity mismatch or an unresolved compliance question can still stop the opening.

Use the Service-Public explanation of the right to an account to identify the current public route, and check the practical submission channel with the Banque de France page on exercising the right to an account. The usual file should contain your signed request, identity document, proof of French domicile, refusal certificate or evidence of the fifteen-day silence, and the declaration concerning the absence of a French deposit account. The exact upload or postal requirements should be checked at the time of filing because public forms and accepted formats can change.

Before transmitting the file, create a one-page chronology. Include the bank’s name, branch or online channel, application date, documents sent, acknowledgement, refusal or silence, and your request for the certificate. Add a one-page index of attachments. Numbering the pages helps if the Banque de France asks for a missing item. If someone else sends the request on your behalf, keep the authority or consent that permits that person or organisation to act.

Once the Banque de France names the bank, contact the designated branch promptly and ask for the opening appointment or secure document channel. Bring the original documents if the bank requires them. The designation does not permit you to ignore the bank’s customer checks. Article L561-5 requires identity verification before the relationship, and Article R561-5 requires the bank to collect core identity data for an individual. If the bank asks why a British pension, UK salary or sale proceeds will be paid into France, answer with a consistent document trail.

The account created through this route comes with “services bancaires de base”, meaning basic banking services. Article D312-5-1 of the Monetary and Financial Code expressly provides that these services include the basic services listed in Article D312-5, cash deposits and withdrawals at the counter, an authorisation-based payment card that can be used for internet payments and withdrawals in the European Union, two bank-cheque forms per month or equivalent means, and cash operations. The relevant official text begins: “Les services bancaires de base mentionnés au III de l’article L. 312-1 comprennent”.

In practical terms, the basic package is designed to make ordinary life possible. The official rules cover opening, holding and closing the account, a bank-details statement known as a relevé d’identité bancaire or RIB, account statements, incoming transfers and direct debits, SEPA transfers, balance information and ordinary deposits and withdrawals. The card is generally controlled so that each payment is authorised against the available balance. This protects the access function but may be inconvenient if you expect an overdraft or a high daily spending limit.

Read the account agreement before signing. The designated bank must set out the relationship in a written agreement, and the account is not a promise of free credit. Ask for the tariff, the card limits, the cash-deposit policy, the statement frequency, the method for changing your address and the procedure for disputing a payment. Keep the designation decision and opening documents together with the agreement. If the bank tries to turn the appointment into an application for a mortgage, insurance package or investment product, return the discussion to the basic deposit account that the decision concerns.

A British resident may keep a UK account at the same time. The French right-to-account procedure does not require you to close legitimate UK banking arrangements. However, if you become French tax resident, a UK bank account can create a separate French reporting obligation. The official Form 3916 information on impots.gouv.fr explains that residents may have to declare foreign accounts opened, held, used or closed during the tax year. Opening a French basic account therefore solves a payment-access problem; it does not erase tax reporting duties.

B. Can you challenge a refusal based on nationality, residence or “Brexit”?

A refusal is not automatically unlawful because the applicant is British. It may be lawful if the bank cannot identify the customer, cannot verify the address, cannot obtain the information needed for its risk assessment, or has another objective legal reason. Article L561-8 applies even to a bank designated under the right-to-account procedure when the required checks cannot be completed. A person who supplies a blurred passport, refuses to explain the source of funds or gives contradictory residence information may be unable to force an opening simply by invoking Article L312-1.

The analysis changes if the bank applies a blanket rule that excludes British nationals, or if it uses “Brexit” as a substitute for examining the applicant’s French domicile and documents. The French Penal Code’s discrimination provisions identify protected grounds that can include origin, nationality and place of residence. Article 225-2 provides that discrimination is punishable when it consists in “A refuser la fourniture d’un bien ou d’un service” — refusing to supply a good or service. The official Légifrance section on Articles 225-1 to 225-4 of the Penal Code should be read with the precise facts and the statutory exceptions.

A compliance question is not the same as a nationality refusal. “Please provide your French residence document and tax-residence details” is materially different from “we do not open accounts for British people”. A bank can also have cross-border risk policies, but a policy must operate within the law and must not disguise prohibited discrimination. The fact that a bank’s internal policy is triggered by a UK address, a non-French tax residence or a complex source of funds does not, without more, prove discrimination. The written reason and the documents requested are therefore central.

Preserve the evidence that allows those distinctions to be tested:

• Save the original refusal, not just a screenshot of a shortened mobile message.
• Write down the date, branch, employee name, precise words used and whether “British”, “UK”, “Brexit”, “non-EU” or a missing document was mentioned.
• Keep the application form and every document you supplied, with the file names and transmission dates.
• Record whether the bank asked for the same documents from another comparable applicant, but do not conduct a covert test or record a person unlawfully without taking advice.
• Ask for the refusal certificate, the reason and the bank’s complaint procedure in a neutral written message.
• Keep proof of financial consequences, such as an employer unable to pay salary, a landlord unable to set up a direct debit or a public body unable to process a transfer. These consequences do not prove discrimination alone, but they explain urgency and loss.

The first challenge should usually be a written complaint to the bank’s customer-relations service. State that you are asking the bank to correct a factual misunderstanding, identify the missing compliance document or review a potential nationality-based refusal. Attach a concise evidence index. Do not accuse an individual employee of a criminal offence in the first message unless the evidence is clear. A precise request often produces a more useful written position than an emotional exchange at a branch.

If the bank does not resolve the matter, consider the banking mediator identified in the bank’s terms, a report to the relevant supervisory channel and, where discrimination is reasonably supported, the Défenseur des droits or a complaint to the police or public prosecutor. A mediator may address a customer dispute but cannot turn a legally impossible anti-money-laundering relationship into a permissible one. A criminal or discrimination route also requires evidence of the protected ground and the refusal. A lawyer can help preserve the chronology, identify the correct recipient and decide whether the issue is better framed as an access-to-account application, a contractual dispute, a discrimination claim or a combination.

The designated account has protection against arbitrary closure, but it is not immune from legal controls. Article L312-1 permits termination in defined situations, including deliberate use for operations the bank has reason to suspect are illegal, inaccurate information, loss of the domicile or residence condition, opening a second French deposit account that provides the basic services, repeated incivility or an inability to satisfy Article L561-8. The bank must normally send a free written notice, state the reason unless a security or public-order exception applies, inform the Banque de France and provide at least two months’ notice, subject to statutory exceptions.

The Cour de cassation decision of 30 June 2021, Commercial Chamber, appeal no. 19-14.313, ECLI:FR:CCASS:2021:CO00623, is a useful warning about the limits of the protection. The Supreme Court examined a right-to-account relationship and referred to a “Constitue une utilisation délibérée du compte” — deliberate use of the account — in the context of suspected illegal operations. The decision does not mean that a bank can close a designated account on a vague suspicion. It shows that the statutory account is not a licence to use French banking services for concealment, unlawful transfers or transactions that the bank has legally grounded reasons to question.

Conversely, a refusal should not be left unchallenged when the facts show a simple administrative error. If a bank treated a valid Withdrawal Agreement permit as an invalid document, counted a joint account as an individual account, or ignored a complete refusal request, correct the record in writing and start the fifteen-day evidence trail where necessary. The current Article L312-1 text on Légifrance gives the applicant the statutory route, the refusing bank’s information duties, the one-working-day designation period, the three-working-day opening period and the basic-services framework. Those are concrete points to cite in a complaint or consultation.

Do not confuse the right-to-account procedure with a claim that a bank must accept every product. If you want a French mortgage, a business account, a high-limit card, an investment account or a facility for a company, the bank may apply additional eligibility and risk rules. The personal right-to-account file should remain focused on an individual deposit account. If a bank tries to reject that account because it will not provide a separate credit product, ask it to state the decision on the deposit-account request itself.

Conclusion

A British person who genuinely lives in France after Brexit can have a legal route to a French deposit account even when an ordinary bank says no. The decisive sequence is practical: prove French domicile, identify whether an individual French deposit account already exists, submit a complete written request, obtain the free refusal certificate or prove fifteen days of silence, and ask the Banque de France to designate a bank. The designation is not an overdraft or a premium banking offer; it is access to a defined basic-services account.

At every stage, keep nationality separate from compliance. A British passport may explain why the bank asks about residence, tax status and UK income, but it is not by itself a lawful reason to ignore a French-domiciled applicant. The bank must complete identity and anti-money-laundering checks, while the applicant should give consistent documents and a clear chronology. If “Brexit” is used as a blanket refusal, preserve the evidence and challenge the precise decision through the bank’s complaint process and, where justified, the appropriate mediator, authority or court.

Finally, remember the parallel obligations. A French basic account does not replace the need to examine UK banking arrangements, French tax residence or the declaration of foreign accounts. A short, well-indexed file is usually the fastest way to move from a verbal refusal to a reviewable legal position.

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