A French société civile immobilière (SCI), meaning a French civil property company, can be perfectly legitimate while its bank account is suspended, restricted or refused after a compliance review. British shareholders often experience this after Brexit when the bank asks for an updated ownership chart, a French or UK tax-residence document, proof of the source of funds, or evidence that the company’s bénéficiaire effectif (beneficial owner) information is current. A request for documents is not, by itself, a finding of wrongdoing. It is a signal that the bank has not yet completed the checks required before it can continue the relationship.

The practical question is therefore not simply “why does the bank dislike British shareholders?” It is: which type of banking decision has been made, which document is missing, and which remedy is available? The answer differs if the bank is refusing a new account, freezing payments, terminating an ordinary account, or terminating an account opened through France’s statutory droit au compte (right-to-account procedure). This article maps those distinctions, explains the evidence a British family should assemble, and sets out the escalation route. It also separates the SCI’s French legal and tax obligations from each shareholder’s personal UK and French reporting obligations.

For the wider family-planning context, see the article on whether British families should use a French SCI after Brexit. The present article addresses a narrower and separate problem: what to do when the SCI’s banking relationship is challenged.

I. Why can a French SCI account be blocked after Brexit?

A. What the bank is legally checking when it asks for a new file

The bank is dealing with the SCI as a legal person, not merely with the British family behind it. The first file should therefore identify the company and the authority of the person who represents it. The usual core documents are the up-to-date extrait Kbis (company registration extract), the signed articles of association, the appointment of the gérant (manager), the registered-office evidence, the latest ownership table and a written mandate if somebody other than the legal manager communicates with the bank. A UK shareholder’s passport is relevant, but it does not replace the SCI’s corporate documents.

The second layer is the identification of the beneficial owner. Article L. 561-2-2 of the French Code monétaire et financier defines that person as the natural person who ultimately controls the customer or for whom the operation is carried out. The official wording begins: “le bénéficiaire effectif est la ou les personnes physiques : 1° Soit qui contrôlent en dernier lieu, directement ou indirectement, le client”. The rule is about real control, not nationality. A British shareholder holding more than 25 per cent may be a beneficial owner, but a person with a smaller holding may also qualify if the articles, a voting arrangement, a chain of companies or another legal mechanism gives that person effective control.

The bank then compares several records that are often inconsistent after a family reorganisation: the articles, the share ledger, a gift or succession deed, the French registre national des entreprises (RNE), the beneficial-owner filing made through the Guichet unique (the one-stop business formalities portal), and the bank’s own file. The INPI explanation of beneficial owners states that the declaration must identify the people concerned and the type of control exercised. A bank may therefore ask the family to correct an RNE entry before it will release a payment, especially where a British shareholder has moved, changed name, transferred shares or become a usufructuary.

The legal reason for this scrutiny is found in Article L. 561-5 of the same Code. It requires the bank, before entering a business relationship, to identify the customer and, where relevant, the beneficial owner, and to verify the identity through reliable written evidence. The operative wording is: “Identifient leur client et, le cas échéant, le bénéficiaire effectif”. Article L. 561-8 then sets the consequence of an unresolved file: when the obliged institution cannot satisfy the identification obligations, “elle n’exécute aucune opération, quelles qu’en soient les modalités, n’établit ni ne poursuit aucune relation d’affaires”. In plain English, a bank may be legally unable to process a transfer while it still cannot establish who owns or controls the SCI.

That does not mean that every request is proportionate or that a bank can keep an account in limbo without explanation forever. The compliance team must connect the request to the risk it is assessing. Ask whether the issue is identity, beneficial ownership, tax residence, source of funds, expected activity, sanctions screening or an outdated company record. A vague request for “Brexit documents” is not a useful diagnosis. A request for a current passport, proof of address and a signed ownership chart is more precise and can be answered directly.

The bank may also retain records for a long period. Article L. 561-12 provides that the relevant institutions keep relationship and vigilance documents for five years after the account is closed or the relationship ends. Its text states that they “conservent pendant cinq ans à compter de la clôture de leurs comptes ou de la cessation de leurs relations avec eux” the documents and information relating to the relationship and the vigilance measures. This explains why the bank may ask for a coherent historical explanation of a transfer, a change of manager or an old UK sale, rather than only a photograph of a current passport.

For a family SCI, the bank’s file should be built in layers:

• Company identity: Kbis extract, statutes, registered-office evidence, SIREN number, tax regime and the latest appointment of the manager.
• Ownership and control: share table, transfer deeds, inheritance or gift instruments, voting rights, usufruct or bare ownership, and a simple diagram showing each natural person at the end of the chain.
• People: passports, proof of address, French residence card where applicable, UK tax-residence evidence where applicable, and the manager’s mandate.
• Purpose and activity: lease agreements, property-management agreement, expected rent, loan documents, insurance, tax notices and an explanation of why funds move between the UK, the SCI and France.
• Source of funds: completion statement for a UK sale, inheritance or probate documents, loan offer, pension or investment statement, and bank statements showing the path of the money.

Do not send a random bundle of papers. Use a numbered index, identify the relevant page in each document and explain any difference in spelling, address or percentage. If a document is in English, ask the bank whether it needs a certified French translation. An apostille may be required for particular foreign public documents, but it is not a universal answer to a bank’s compliance question. The bank is testing evidence and traceability; adding an apostille to the wrong document will not cure an inconsistent ownership structure.

The manager should also keep the other shareholders informed. Under Article 1856 of the French Civil Code, “Les gérants doivent, au moins une fois dans l’année, rendre compte de leur gestion aux associés”. The annual report must cover the company’s activity, expected or realised profits and losses. A bank freeze that prevents rent collection, loan repayment or tax payment is not merely an administrative inconvenience: it is a management event that should be recorded, discussed and evidenced.

B. What Brexit changes for British shareholders — and what it does not

Brexit changes the documentary context, not the basic rule that a French SCI is a French legal person with a French registered office and a French bank relationship. A British passport does not automatically justify a refusal. At the same time, a British shareholder is now commonly treated by a French bank as connected with a non-EU jurisdiction for some operational and risk assessments. The bank may seek additional confirmation of identity, tax residence, expected cross-border transfers and the origin of funds. That is a compliance question, not a rule that British nationals cannot own shares in a French SCI.

The SCI’s tax classification must be kept separate from the shareholder’s nationality. A French SCI that is not subject to French corporation tax generally remains fiscally transparent: the company reports the property income and the shareholders are taxed on their respective shares. The French tax authority’s SCI guidance explains that an SCI subject to property-income taxation files form 2072-C-SD or 2072-S-SD each year, and that each shareholder declares the share attributable to them. The bank may ask for the 2072 or the latest tax notice because it wants to understand activity and source of funds, but the 2072 is not a substitute for the beneficial-owner declaration.

The form itself is important. The official 2072-S-SD page describes form 2072-S as the declaration for the income from built and unbuilt properties held by an SCI not subject to corporation tax. The DGFiP SCI page states that the SCI must file every year, normally by the second working day after 1 May for the previous year’s rents, through the professional tax account, and explains the distinction between the simplified and comprehensive versions. An SCI with a non-calendar financial year should check the filing rule for that year rather than copy a calendar-year date.

A British shareholder may live in France, remain resident in the United Kingdom, or move between both countries. The tax residence of the shareholder is therefore a separate analysis. The 2008 France–UK Double Taxation Convention guidance on GOV.UK explains that income from immovable property situated in a contracting state may be taxed in that state. The treaty also deals with relief from double taxation. The GOV.UK guidance for people living in France reminds British residents that France and the UK have a double-taxation agreement and that foreign assets may require separate reporting. Neither source says that a British shareholder can ignore the French SCI’s records or that the French 2072 automatically completes a UK Self Assessment return.

This is one reason a bank may ask for both sides of the file: a French tax notice or French tax-residence certificate, and a UK tax-residence or HMRC document. The bank is not deciding the final treaty position. It is checking whether the customer’s explanation is coherent. If the family says that all shareholders are UK residents but supplies French tax notices showing a French household, explain the change of residence and the relevant tax year. If a shareholder is resident in France but a pension, sale receipt or dividend comes from the UK, show the path and the tax treatment rather than describing the money simply as “family funds”.

There is also a distinction between a bank account held by the SCI and a personal account held by a British resident. The existing article French Bank Closes a British Resident’s Account After Brexit: Notice, Banque de France and Remedies concerns the personal-account context. An SCI account has a separate customer, a manager with authority, a corporate purpose and a beneficial-owner chain. A bank’s refusal of the personal account does not automatically prove that an SCI account refusal is unlawful; equally, the bank cannot treat the SCI as an unexplained personal wallet.

The company also has its own exposure to debts. Article 1857 of the Civil Code states that “A l’égard des tiers, les associés répondent indéfiniment des dettes sociales à proportion de leur part dans le capital social”. Article 1858 adds that “Les créanciers ne peuvent poursuivre le paiement des dettes sociales contre un associé qu’après avoir préalablement et vainement poursuivi la personne morale”. Those provisions do not give a bank a free right to debit a shareholder’s private account, and they do not turn every shareholder into the SCI’s manager. They do explain why lenders, insurers and a bank may examine the SCI’s capital, ownership and authority with care.

The Court of Cassation’s judgment of 18 January 2024, appeal no. 22-19.472, concerned two SCI bank accounts and the conditions for proceeding against associates. The Court reproduced the rule in these exact words: “Aux termes du premier de ces textes, les créanciers ne peuvent poursuivre le paiement des dettes sociales contre un associé qu’après avoir préalablement et vainement poursuivi la personne morale.” The official decision is useful for the boundary: the SCI, its account and its shareholders are connected, but they are not interchangeable.

Finally, an SCI can be subject to corporation tax if it opts for that regime or carries on activity that falls within the corporation-tax rules. Article 206 of the French General Tax Code provides that civil companies may be liable to corporation tax in the circumstances set out there, and Article 8 applies the transparent regime to qualifying members of civil companies. A bank that receives an IS tax return, a 2065 form or accounts will assess the business differently from a passive SCI filing 2072. Confirm the tax regime before sending the bank a pack that mixes forms from incompatible regimes.

II. What to do when a French bank refuses, freezes or closes the SCI account

A. How to rebuild the compliance file and request a decision

Start by identifying the event in writing. A “blocked account” can mean that online access is disabled, a particular transfer is held, outgoing payments are refused, the account is under a temporary review, the bank has issued a termination notice, or the bank has refused to open the account at all. These events trigger different rules. Ask the bank to confirm: the date of the decision, whether the account remains open, which operations are restricted, the exact category of document still missing, the deadline for supplying it, and the date on which any notice period runs.

Send the request from the SCI’s manager or a person with a written mandate. Attach a concise compliance pack rather than a narrative email of several pages. The cover letter should state the SCI’s name, SIREN, account number in masked form, manager, registered office, beneficial owners and the practical effect of the restriction. If the issue is a mismatch in the RNE, attach the correction filing or evidence that it has been submitted. If the issue is a transfer from a UK account, identify the sender, legal basis, amount, purpose and supporting bank trail.

For a British family, the ownership chart deserves special care. Show each person’s full legal name as it appears in the passport, date of birth, nationality, country of residence, number of shares, voting rights and any usufruct or bare-ownership arrangement. If a UK trust, estate, company or nominee appears anywhere in the chain, do not conceal it behind the name of the person who communicates with the bank. Explain the chain and identify the natural person who ultimately controls it. An incomplete chart often causes more delay than a complex but transparent one.

The bank may ask for financial information because it must understand the expected activity. For an SCI, that normally means the property address, lease or proposed lease, monthly rent, loan repayment, insurance, property-tax and service-charge payments, manager’s remuneration if any, and whether the company will receive capital contributions. A family SCI with one French rental property and quarterly transfers from two named shareholders presents a different risk profile from an SCI receiving large payments from unrelated companies. Put the expected pattern in a table and flag one-off transactions in advance.

If the source of funds is a UK property sale, provide the completion statement, sale contract or solicitor’s completion letter, the sending bank statement and the SCI resolution authorising the contribution or loan. If the funds come from an inheritance, give the probate or notarial document and an explanation of the relationship. If the funds come from a pension or investment account, show the account statement and the reason the money is being contributed to the SCI. If documents contain unrelated personal data, ask whether a redacted version is acceptable; do not alter figures, dates or names.

Correct the French corporate records at the same time. A change in manager, registered office, shareholding or beneficial owner may need a formal change through the Guichet unique. The INPI procedure for modifying a company lists additions, removals and changes to beneficial owners among the information that can be updated. The Entreprendre.Service-Public guide to business formalities also identifies changes to a company’s beneficial owners and management as formalities. The bank should receive the filing receipt, but a filing receipt is not the same as a completed update: obtain the current extract or register evidence when available.

Keep the SCI’s legal reporting current while the bank matter is pending. If a manager has failed to provide annual information or has allowed the company’s affairs to become opaque, the shareholders should make a dated written request and preserve delivery evidence. In Cour de cassation, 19 April 2005, appeal no. 02-13.599, the Court examined the written reporting duty under Article 1856 and stated: “Mais attendu que le prononcé de la nullité attachée au non respect de l’obligation faite au gérant de rendre compte de sa gestion par écrit est subordonné à l’existence d’un préjudice causé par cette irrégularité”. The case concerned a civil company and its internal resolutions, not a bank’s AML decision. Its practical lesson is narrower: keep a written governance record and connect any claimed harm to the irregularity.

A bank’s restriction can also create a tax problem. If the SCI cannot pay the accountant, submit the 2072 from the professional account or pay an assessment, record the dates and alternative arrangements. The official DGFiP answer on filing an SCI’s results says the representative must teletransmit the declaration and annexes through the SCI’s professional account. Do not wait for an informal bank conversation to expire a tax deadline. If the account cannot be used, ask the bank and the tax authority what alternative payment or filing route is available and keep proof of the technical blockage.

When a declaration is late, the exposure is not limited to an administrative warning. Article 1728 of the General Tax Code provides a 10 per cent increase in the cases described there and higher increases after an unanswered formal notice. Article 1729 provides 40 per cent for a deliberate failure and 80 per cent for abuse of law or fraudulent manoeuvres in the circumstances stated by the text. The official 2072 notice expressly points to late interest and, where applicable, the increases under Articles 1728, 1729 and 1731. A bank freeze is therefore a reason to organise an immediate contingency plan, not a reason to abandon the filing.

The manager should ask the bank for a named contact and a written next step. A useful letter ends with a short list: “Please confirm whether the relationship is open, suspended or terminated; please identify any missing document; please confirm whether payments necessary to preserve the property and comply with tax obligations may proceed; and please state the date and method of any appeal or complaint.” Send it through the bank’s secure messaging system and by a traceable channel if a termination notice has already been issued.

If the bank answers that it cannot disclose the underlying suspicion, do not insist on a disclosure that the anti-money-laundering framework may prohibit. Ask instead for the objective documents and factual inconsistencies that can be corrected. A bank is allowed to protect confidential reporting, but it still needs to distinguish an unverified identity from a confirmed closure. The legal objective is to make the file usable and to preserve evidence of the bank’s decision, not to force the compliance officer to reveal a confidential report.

B. When to use the right-to-account procedure or challenge the closure

If the SCI has no deposit account in France and a bank refuses to open one, examine the French droit au compte procedure. Article L. 312-1 of the Monetary and Financial Code states that a deposit account is available to “Toute personne physique ou morale domiciliée en France”, subject to the conditions in the article, including not already having such an account in France. A French-registered SCI is a legal person; the manager must still prove the company’s registration, authority and absence of another French deposit account. The right is not a guarantee that the bank initially approached must accept the SCI.

The Entreprendre.Service-Public page on the professional right to an account lists the practical file for a company: recent registration evidence, identification of the legal representative, the refusal or proof of a request unanswered for more than 15 days, and a declaration that the company has no deposit account, together with the termination decision if there was one. The Banque de France form for a legal person similarly asks for the representative’s identity, the refusal letter, the declaration of no account and a Kbis extract less than three months old.

Once the file is complete, the official right-to-account procedure explains that the Banque de France can designate an establishment. The designated bank must still apply customer-identification and anti-money-laundering rules. This distinction matters for British shareholders: a French SCI cannot be refused merely because its shareholders are British if it otherwise satisfies the right-to-account conditions, but the designated bank may request valid passports, a control chart, proof of address, the company’s purpose and source-of-funds information before opening or operating the account.

The statutory time and notice rules depend on the type of account. For a standard open-ended deposit-account relationship, Article L. 312-1-1 V provides that the bank terminates the agreement with at least two months’ notice, subject to the contract and specific statutory exceptions. The Court of Cassation’s commercial chamber, in its judgment of 26 January 2010, appeal no. 09-65.086, stated: “Mais attendu qu’en l’absence de disposition légale particulière, toute partie à un contrat à durée indéterminée peut, sans avoir à motiver sa décision, mettre fin unilatéralement à celui-ci, sauf à engager sa responsabilité en cas d’abus;”. The official decision concerned a company account and a 90-day notice period. It shows why a bank may not always have to give a detailed commercial reason, while still remaining liable for an abusive termination.

An account opened through the right-to-account procedure has its own safeguards and exceptions. Article L. 312-1 IV lists situations in which the designated bank may terminate, including deliberate use for suspected illegal operations, inaccurate information, loss of the relevant residence conditions, a second account, repeated incivility or an inability to satisfy the identification rules. In Cour de cassation, 30 June 2021, appeal no. 19-14.313, the Court gave the following exact explanation: “Il résulte de ce texte que l’établissement de crédit peut résilier unilatéralement la convention de compte assorti des services bancaires de base, ouvert en application du droit au compte, lorsque le client a délibérément utilisé son compte pour des opérations que l’organisme a des raisons de soupçonner comme poursuivant des fins illégales, auquel cas il est dispensé de lui accorder un préavis.” That decision concerned suspected sanctions-avoidance payments and is not evidence that a British shareholder is suspected of anything. It is a warning not to confuse the two regimes.

For an ordinary account, a bank may be free to terminate without explaining its commercial reason, but the SCI should still check the notice, the contractual clause, the date, the account balance, pending direct debits, cheques, standing orders, loan repayments and the transfer of remaining funds. If the notice is defective or too short, a lawyer can ask the bank to suspend its effect or compensate the loss. Article 1103 of the Civil Code says that “Les contrats légalement formés tiennent lieu de loi à ceux qui les ont faits”, while Article 1217 lists the remedies available when a contractual obligation is not performed or is performed imperfectly, including forced performance, termination and damages. These provisions do not create a general right to keep a bank account open; they provide a framework for testing a contractual breach.

The financial consequences may be personal or social, and that distinction matters. In a 12 May 2021 judgment, appeal no. 19-13.942, the Court of Cassation considered a civil construction-sale company, not an ordinary family SCI. It recorded that the tax reassessment arose from the manager’s conduct and that the shareholder’s personal loss could include penalties and late interest directly linked to that conduct. The verified passage says: “La cour d’appel a relevé que le redressement fiscal appliqué à la SCCV résultait de l’incurie du gérant, M. [P], qui n’avait pas exécuté les résolutions de l’assemblée générale extraordinaire du 2 avril 2007 prévoyant la dissolution amiable de la société et avait poursuivi l’activité de celle-ci tout en effectuant des déclarations fiscales non sincères et incomplètes.” The official decision must be used carefully: it is an analogy about documented management failures, not a rule that every account freeze creates a personal claim.

If the bank refuses a new account, obtain the refusal letter in the SCI’s name. If it does not answer within the applicable period after a properly documented request, preserve the proof of delivery. If the SCI has no French deposit account, file the right-to-account application with the Banque de France rather than relying only on repeated applications to commercial banks. If the account is already open and is being closed, the file must instead focus on notice, contractual abuse, the legality of the stated reason, and the immediate preservation of property and tax payments. Opening a second account before the first is closed may affect eligibility for the right-to-account route, so take advice before changing the factual position.

Escalate in a measured order:

1. Internal correction: answer the document request with a complete, indexed file and ask for a written status.
2. Complaint: write to the bank’s complaints department, not only the branch, and challenge any factual error or unexplained mismatch.
3. Continuity: arrange a lawful alternative payment route for rent, insurance, loan instalments and tax obligations, while preserving proof that the account restriction caused the difficulty.
4. Right to account: if the French SCI has no deposit account, submit the legal-person file to the Banque de France.
5. Urgent legal review: if a payment freeze threatens a property, a tax deadline or a contractual obligation, have the notice and account agreement reviewed quickly for an urgent application or damages claim.

Do not accuse a bank of discrimination solely because its request mentions Brexit. Do not admit that a transfer has an origin different from the real one merely to make the file pass. Do not send a shareholder’s private funds through the SCI without a written basis such as a capital contribution, shareholder loan or distribution authorised under the company’s documents. The strongest remedy usually begins with an accurate corporate record, a traceable explanation of the money and a clear request for the bank to identify the remaining obstacle.

Conclusion

A French SCI owned by British shareholders can face a serious bank interruption after Brexit without the underlying ownership being unlawful. The bank must identify the SCI, its manager and its beneficial owners, understand the expected activity and comply with the French anti-money-laundering framework. The family must respond with a coherent ownership chart, current RNE information, reliable identity and residence evidence, a clear source-of-funds trail and the correct French tax documents.

The route depends on the decision. A new-account refusal may lead to the Banque de France right-to-account procedure if the SCI has no French deposit account. A freeze calls for an immediate indexed compliance response and a continuity plan. An ordinary account termination requires review of the contract, notice and any abusive circumstances. An account opened under the right-to-account procedure has more specific statutory rules, including exceptions where identification cannot be completed. In every case, British nationality is a fact to document, not a substitute for the legal analysis.

For a family already facing missed rent, an approaching tax deadline, a frozen transfer or a termination notice, preserve the bank’s letters, delivery receipts, account statements, corporate records and tax calendar. Those documents allow the issue to be separated into compliance, corporate-governance, tax and banking-contract questions before an irreversible step is taken.