You live in London, New York, Dubai or Singapore. Your French company is ready on paper: the name is reserved, the articles of association, called statuts in France, are signed, and your lawyer is waiting for one document to file the registration. Then the bank says no. No corporate account, no certificate showing that the share capital was deposited, and therefore no Kbis, the official extract that proves your company exists, from the greffe, the registry office of the French commercial court. Without that extract, nothing moves: no client invoicing with French VAT, no payroll, no lease in the company name. This guide explains, for a foreign founder or parent company managing everything from abroad, how to deposit share capital from another country and obtain the deposit certificate, how registration through the INPI Guichet Unique, the single online filing portal run by the French intellectual property institute, actually works, why banks refuse foreign-owned files and how to repair them, and how the Banque de France, the French central bank, can designate a bank that must open an account under the droit au compte, the statutory right to an account. Each step cites the exact French statute or court decision that controls it, in force on 23 September 2026.
I. How Do You Open a Corporate Bank Account in France When You Live Abroad and Deposit Your Share Capital?
A. Where Do You Deposit Share Capital From Abroad and How Do You Get the Deposit Certificate That Unlocks Registration?
French company law does not let founders keep the initial cash contributions in their own pocket. For a SARL, the French limited liability company with intuitu personae shares called parts sociales, Article L.223-7 of the Commercial Code provides that shares must be fully subscribed, that shares representing contributions in kind must be fully paid up immediately, and that shares representing cash contributions must be paid up for at least one fifth of their amount, with the balance payable within five years of registration: “Les parts représentant des apports en numéraire doivent être libérées d’au moins un cinquième de leur montant.” The same article adds that the capital must be fully paid up before any new cash subscription, failing which the operation is void. For a SAS, the simplified joint-stock company most foreign investors choose, and for a SA, the figure is higher: Article L.225-3 of the Commercial Code states that “Les actions de numéraire sont libérées, lors de la souscription, de la moitié au moins de leur valeur nominale”, meaning cash shares must be paid up for at least half their nominal value at subscription, with the balance within five years of registration. The SAS borrows this regime through Article L.227-1 of the Commercial Code, which makes SA rules applicable to the SAS except for listed exceptions. Contributions in kind in a SAS or SA must be fully paid at issue. Minimum capital is symbolic, one euro, but the liberation fraction, the portion actually paid in, is mandatory and checked at filing.
The money must then be parked with a qualified depositary until registration. Article L.225-5 of the Commercial Code provides that “Les fonds provenant des souscriptions en numéraire et la liste des souscripteurs avec l’indication des sommes versées par chacun d’eux font l’objet d’un dépôt dans les conditions déterminées par décret en Conseil d’Etat”, and adds the sentence foreign founders often discover too late: “A l’exception des dépositaires visés par le décret prévu à l’alinéa précédent, nul ne peut détenir plus de huit jours les sommes recueillies pour le compte d’une société en formation.” In practice, only a bank, a notary (notaire), or the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, the French public financial institution, may hold the funds, and nobody else may keep them longer than eight days. The depositary issues an attestation de dépôt, the deposit certificate listing each subscriber and amount paid, which the INPI portal requires for registration. From abroad, the sequence is therefore: choose the depositary before signing the statuts, send the subscriber list with exact amounts, wire the funds from the founder account with a reference matching the subscriber name, provide certified identification for each subscriber, and obtain the certificate. Banks that refuse the corporate account sometimes still accept a one-off capital deposit for a company in formation, because the funds are frozen and the risk is low; notaries accept deposits more readily but charge a fee and require the draft statuts; the Caisse des Dépôts accepts online deposits for companies in formation and is often the fastest route when every bank says no. If your broader project is still at the choice-of-vehicle stage, our pillar guide on setting up a company in France as a foreign founder compares the SAS, SARL, subsidiary and branch before you lock the capital structure described here.
B. What Kbis, Greffe and INPI Guichet Unique Steps Follow the Deposit, and What Happens to Money and Contracts While You Wait?
Once the certificate is issued, registration runs exclusively through the Guichet Unique, the single electronic filing desk operated by the INPI, the Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle, which forwards the file to the competent greffe, the tax office and the social bodies. Article L.123-33 of the Commercial Code organises this single-file principle: “Ce dossier est déposé par voie électronique auprès d’un organisme unique désigné à cet effet. Ce dépôt vaut déclaration auprès du destinataire dès lors que le dossier est régulier et complet à l’égard de celui-ci.” The filing itself is made on the INPI Guichet Unique portal, and the INPI help pages for creating a company list the supporting documents by company type. A foreign founder files from abroad with an electronic signature; no travel to France is required at this stage. The greffe verifies the statuts, the deposit certificate, the registered office proof, the identity and criminal-record documents of the directors, and the declaration of beneficial owners for the RBE, the Registre des Bénéficiaires Effectifs, the register identifying the natural persons who ultimately own or control the company. When the file is complete, the greffe registers the company in the Registre du Commerce et des Sociétés (RCS), the French trade and companies register, and issues the Kbis extract: company name, legal form, capital, registered office, directors, and RCS number. Publication follows in the BODACC, the Bulletin Officiel des Annonces Civiles et Commerciales, the official gazette where creations, transfers and insolvency proceedings appear. Practical timing in Paris and the Île-de-France region, where the greffe du tribunal de commerce de Paris handles heavy volumes, is typically a few days for a clean file and several weeks when the greffe sends observations, most often on the registered-office proof or on a foreign criminal-record document without proper translation. Answer observations within days, because the file lapses if left dormant.
Between the deposit and the Kbis, the company has no legal personality, and founders act at their own risk. Article L.210-6 of the Commercial Code states that “Les sociétés commerciales jouissent de la personnalité morale à dater de leur immatriculation au registre du commerce et des sociétés”, and that persons who acted in the name of a company in formation before registration “sont tenues solidairement et indéfiniment responsables des actes ainsi accomplis, à moins que la société, après avoir été régulièrement constituée et immatriculée, ne reprenne les engagements souscrits”, in which case the commitments “sont alors réputés avoir été souscrits dès l’origine par la société.” The Cour de cassation confirmed this mechanism in a published 2023 ruling: “Il résulte de ces textes que les sociétés commerciales jouissent de la personnalité morale à dater de leur immatriculation au registre du commerce et des sociétés. Les personnes qui ont agi au nom ou pour le compte d’une société en formation avant qu’elle ait acquis la jouissance de la personnalité morale sont tenues solidairement et indéfiniment responsables des actes ainsi accomplis, à moins que la société, après avoir été régulièrement constituée et immatriculée, ne reprenne les engagements souscrits. Ces engagements sont alors réputés avoir été souscrits dès l’origine par la société.” The official decision is Cour de cassation, Commercial Chamber, 29 November 2023, appeal no. 22-18.295, published in the Bulletin. Three consequences matter for a founder abroad. First, every pre-registration contract, office lease, bank pre-agreement, supplier order, should state expressly that it is signed in the name of or on behalf of the company in formation, so the company can later take it over through reprise, the formal takeover of pre-registration commitments. Second, the statuts should list the commitments already made, because reprise can be automatic through the signed statuts once the company is registered. Third, the deposited capital stays frozen until the Kbis is issued; only after registration may the legal representative order the depositary to release the funds to the new corporate account, which is exactly why a missing corporate account after registration becomes an emergency rather than an inconvenience.
II. What Can You Do When a French Bank Refuses to Open an Account for Your Foreign-Owned Company?
A. How Do Anti-Money-Laundering Checks Explain the Refusal, and How Do You Fix the File?
Most refusals have nothing to do with your business plan. They come from the anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing duties, abbreviated LCB-FT in France, that bind every bank before any relationship starts. Article L.561-5 of the Monetary and Financial Code requires banks, before entering into a business relationship, to identify the client and, where relevant, the beneficial owner, and to verify those identities against probative written documents: “Identifient leur client et, le cas échéant, le bénéficiaire effectif au sens de l’article L. 561-2-2” and “Vérifient ces éléments d’identification sur présentation de tout document écrit à caractère probant.” Where the bank cannot satisfy these duties, Article L.561-8 of the same Code is categorical: “elle n’exécute aucune opération, quelles qu’en soient les modalités, n’établit ni ne poursuit aucune relation d’affaires”, meaning it performs no transaction and establishes or continues no business relationship, and it may file a suspicious-transaction report. A foreign-owned file concentrates every risk factor the bank scoring matrix dislikes: a non-resident director it has never met, identification documents it cannot read, a parent company registered in a jurisdiction it cannot query, a beneficial owner behind several layers, an activity description in English with no French tax history, and expected cross-border wires from day one. The compliance officer therefore asks for more documents, the branch delays, and after weeks the answer is a polite refusal or silence, sometimes explained by internal-risk appetite rather than any suspicion about you.
The repair is methodical and can be done entirely from abroad. Build the file the compliance officer dreams of: certified passport copy of each director and each shareholder holding, directly or indirectly, more than 25 percent, with a certified translation where the document is not in French or English; proof of personal address abroad dated within three months plus a French correspondence address where available; the signed statuts with the subscriber list; the draft or issued deposit certificate; the registered-office contract, called domiciliation contract when provided by a domiciliation company, with the approval number of that company; the criminal-record or sworn declaration documents the greffe requires; the group chart showing the chain from the ultimate natural person to the French company; the source-of-funds proof for the capital, bank statements, sale deed, dividend resolution or intra-group loan agreement; the expected activity memo in French, one page, describing clients, suppliers, invoice volumes and the reason a French account is needed; and for American founders or American-owned groups, the completed FATCA self-certification and tax identification numbers, because French banks apply the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act and the OECD Common Reporting Standard automatically. Send this file in one batch, in French or bilingual form, through the branch in charge of professionals rather than the retail counter, and ask for the written acknowledgment of receipt. Meet the manager by video call with originals on camera where the bank accepts remote identification; several banks now accept electronic identification under their own procedures, while others still require a visit, in which case schedule one focused day in Paris combining the bank appointment, the notary if relevant, and the domiciliation visit. When the refusal arrives, demand the written refusal statement immediately, because that document is the key to the next stage.
B. How Does the Banque de France Droit au Compte Procedure Force a Bank to Open an Account, and How Do You Protect the Company Afterwards?
Where at least one bank has refused, French law gives the company a second route that actually works: the statutory right to an account. Article L.312-1 of the Monetary and Financial Code opens with the principle: “A droit à l’ouverture d’un compte de dépôt dans l’établissement de crédit de son choix, sous réserve d’être dépourvu d’un tel compte en France : 1° Toute personne physique ou morale domiciliée en France”. A French-registered company with its siège social, its registered office, in France is a legal person domiciled in France and therefore qualifies, even where its shareholders and directors live abroad. The same article organises the procedure: the refusing bank must provide, systematically, without charge and without delay, a written refusal statement and inform the applicant of the right to ask the Banque de France to designate a bank: “une attestation de refus d’ouverture de compte et l’informe qu’il peut demander à la Banque de France de lui désigner un établissement de crédit pour lui ouvrir un compte.” The designated bank must open the account within three working days of receiving the complete file: “Ils procèdent à l’ouverture du compte de dépôt dans les trois jours ouvrés à compter de la réception de l’ensemble des pièces qui lui sont nécessaires à cet effet.” The account opened this way carries the services bancaires de base, the basic banking services whose content is fixed by regulation, and Article D.312-5 of the same Code lists them: account opening, maintenance and closing, one address change per year, bank identity statements on request, direct-debit domiciliation, a monthly statement, cheque and transfer collection, SEPA payments, remote balance consultation, cash deposits and withdrawals, and a payment card allowing internet payments and cash withdrawals in the European Union.
In practice, file the request at the Banque de France counter or through its published channels with the refusal statement, the company file described above, and the form for legal persons. The official service-public guidance on refusal of account opening and the right to an account explains the steps and treats a bank silence beyond fifteen days as a refusal, which matters where the bank simply stops answering a foreign applicant. Choose, where the form allows, a place near the registered office: for a Paris-registered company, the Paris offices of the Banque de France and a bank branch in Paris or the Île-de-France, the Paris region, simplify later cash operations and cheque deposits. The designation typically arrives within one working day of the complete file, and the designated bank then has three working days to open. Expect a basic-services account, not a full credit line: it receives the released share capital, pays suppliers and the URSSAF, the French social-security collection agency, and collects client transfers, which is everything a young company needs. Where the designated bank resists or imposes abusive delays, write with acknowledgment of receipt referring expressly to Article L.312-1, copy the Banque de France office that designated it, and escalate to the bank mediator, called médiateur bancaire, whose details appear in the account agreement. Keep every letter, because the paper trail also protects the directors against later claims that they left the company without resources.
Once the account exists, French law also protects it against abrupt closure. Article L.313-12 of the Monetary and Financial Code provides that any open-ended credit facility, other than occasional, granted by a bank to a company “ne peut être réduit ou interrompu que sur notification écrite et à l’expiration d’un délai de préavis fixé lors de l’octroi du concours”, and that “Ce délai ne peut, sous peine de nullité de la rupture du concours, être inférieur à soixante jours”, meaning a minimum sixty-day written notice failing which the termination is void, except for seriously reprehensible conduct or an irreversibly compromised situation. The same article requires the bank to give, on request, the reasons for the reduction or interruption: “l’établissement de crédit ou la société de financement fournit, sur demande de l’entreprise concernée, les raisons de cette réduction ou interruption”. The Cour de cassation drew the practical consequence in 2022: “Il résulte de l’article L. 313-12 du code monétaire et financier que l’entreprise qui subit la réduction ou l’interruption d’un concours bancaire peut, même après l’expiration du délai de préavis, en demander les raisons à la banque et qu’à défaut de réponse, la banque est susceptible de voir sa responsabilité engagée.” The official decision is Cour de cassation, Commercial Chamber, 30 November 2022, appeal no. 21-17.703. Concretely, a bank that closes the account of your French subsidiary without the contractual notice, or that cuts an overdraft from one day to the next without reasons after your written request, exposes itself to damages, and the sixty-day rule is voidness-level protection, not a mere recommendation. Separate from credit facilities, Article L.312-1 itself restricts termination of a basic-services account opened after designation to six listed cases, including illegal use, inaccurate information, loss of domicile conditions, a second account, repeated incivility or anti-money-laundering termination, with a minimum two-month notice and a reasoned letter, a copy for information to the Banque de France.
Conclusion
A French company without a bank account is not a failure, it is a file stuck at one of three gates, and each gate has a legal key. Where the capital is not yet deposited, the key is the depositary circuit: pay the mandatory fraction, at least one fifth of cash shares in a SARL and at least half in a SAS or SA, lodge the funds with a bank, a notary or the Caisse des Dépôts within the eight-day limit of Article L.225-5, and obtain the nominative certificate that the Guichet Unique demands. Where registration stalls, the key is a complete single file through the INPI portal to the greffe, with the RBE declaration and translated director documents, remembering that until the RCS number exists the founders remain jointly and indefinitely liable and should sign every pre-registration act expressly in the name of the company in formation so the registered company can take it over. Where the bank refuses, the key is first a repaired compliance file with identified beneficial owners, proven source of funds and a French-language activity memo, then, on written refusal, the Banque de France designation under Article L.312-1 with opening within three working days and guaranteed basic services. After opening, the sixty-day notice shield of Article L.313-12 and the reasoned-termination rules protect the account against brutal closure. Handled in this order, from another country and mostly online, the sequence from wire to Kbis to operating account takes weeks, not months, and leaves the directors with dated certificates at every stage instead of personal exposure. Start the depositary discussion before signing the statuts, demand every refusal in writing, and never let the capital sleep on a personal account beyond the statutory eight days.
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