You have lived in France for two years. Your children are at a French school, your tax home is in Bordeaux, Lyon or Nantes, and your salary or pension lands each month in the British current account you have held for twenty years. Then two letters arrive in the same season. Your bank in London writes that it is closing the accounts of customers resident in France and gives you sixty days to move your money. The French bank across the street, where you queue with your passport, your utility bill and your carefully practised French, refuses to open a replacement account and hands you a one-line refusal. You are asking the only question that matters: can they do this, and what do you file, where, and within what deadline, to force an answer. This article gives you the complete route. It explains why British banks were able to walk away from France-resident customers after Brexit and what notice your British contract and the British regulator expect, what French law requires before any bank in France shuts an everyday account, which papers open a French account for a British resident, and how the droit au compte, meaning the statutory right to an account, turns a refusal into a designation by the Banque de France, the French central bank, within one working day. Every step is tied to the exact text that creates it, so that each letter you send quotes the rule it relies on.

I. Why your British bank can close your account from France and what notice it owes you

A. Passporting is gone, so your United Kingdom bank may lawfully exit France-resident customers

Before Brexit, a bank authorised in London could serve customers across the European Union on the strength of its home licence. That mechanism, called passporting, disappeared when the transition period ended on 31 December 2020. A British bank that wanted to keep France-resident customers afterwards needed either a licensed European subsidiary or a specific arrangement with the French supervisor. Several high-street banks decided the cost was not worth it and wrote to customers living in European Union countries to close their accounts, a wave widely reported in the British press in the autumn of 2020. The official British guidance from that period still states the principle that applied: British guidance from that period asked providers to contact customers who were affected. That sentence comes from the government’s end-of-transition collection on financial services and the end of the transition period, and it is the benchmark against which any sudden, unexplained closure of your British account should be judged. If your bank never contacted you, never explained the reason, or gave you days rather than weeks, keep that letter and its envelope, because the manner of the closure is part of your file.

The closure itself is governed first by your British account contract. French readers sometimes assume a bank needs an official permission to close an account. For an ordinary account it does not: the contract you signed sets the conditions for termination, and the oldest rule of French contract law, which mirrors the English principle that agreements must be kept, states in article 1103 of the Code civil, the French civil code, that “Les contrats légalement formés tiennent lieu de loi à ceux qui les ont faits”, meaning contracts lawfully formed stand as law between those who made them. Read your British terms and conditions before anything else: they fix the notice period, commonly two months for a current account, and they describe how notice must be sent. Where the bank ignored its own notice period, your complaint writes itself, because the bank broke the law it wrote for itself. The British regulator took the same view at the time: the Financial Conduct Authority publicly stressed that banks must give customers resident in the European Union at least two months’ notice of any Brexit-related closure, as reported by the BBC in October 2020 and by The Guardian in September 2020. A closure letter that gives you two weeks, or a closure you discover when your card is declined at a French till, falls below both your contract and that regulatory expectation.

Practical discipline decides these files. From the day the British letter arrives, build one folder, paper or digital, with the closure letter and its date stamp, your last twelve monthly statements, proof of the balance transferred out and where it went, and every message in which you asked for an explanation. If the closure strands a direct debit, a mortgage payment on a property you still own in England, or your National Insurance voluntary contributions, evidence each missed payment and each fee, because compensation for an irregular closure is measured on proven loss. Complain to the bank in writing first, quoting its own notice clause and the two-month regulatory expectation, and set a firm deadline for a final response. If the final response upholds the closure or never comes, a British resident who has kept an English address for service can take the dispute to the Financial Ombudsman Service within six months of that final response, while a customer fully domiciled in France will more often instruct a solicitor to pursue the contractual claim from England. Either way, the British file and the French file described below run in parallel: the British complaint recovers the manner of the exit, while the French procedure gives you a working account.

B. In France, no bank shuts your everyday account without following the contract and a notice period

French law starts from the opposite end. Every personal account in France runs on a written agreement, the convention de compte, meaning the account agreement, and that agreement must spell out how the account is closed. Article L. 312-1-1 of the Code monétaire et financier, the French monetary and financial code, provides that “La gestion d’un compte de dépôt des personnes physiques n’agissant pas pour des besoins professionnels est réglée par une convention écrite, sur support papier ou sur un autre support durable, passée entre le client et son établissement de crédit”, meaning the operation of a personal deposit account is governed by a written agreement between the customer and the bank. Ask your French bank for that agreement the day you open the account and keep it with your statements: the closure clause inside it, typically one to two months’ notice on either side, is the rule the bank must respect. A bank that closes an ordinary account overnight, without the notice its own agreement promises and without a reason permitted by that agreement, commits a contractual wrong, and your file then follows the classic route of French contract disputes, a formal demand letter, the bank’s médiateur, meaning its independent ombudsman, and then the tribunal judiciaire, meaning the ordinary civil court.

The protection is at its strongest where the account was opened through the statutory procedure described in Part II. For an account carrying only basic services and opened on designation by the Banque de France, the bank can only terminate in six exhaustively listed situations, and the statute makes it say so in writing. The six cases run from deliberate misuse of the account for operations the bank has reason to suspect of illegal purpose, through false information given by the customer, loss of the domicile or residence condition, the later opening of a second account, repeated rudeness to staff, and anti-money-laundering termination. Outside the two most serious cases, the customer keeps a floor of protection that no contract can remove: “Un délai minimum de deux mois de préavis est octroyé au titulaire du compte, sauf dans les cas mentionnés au 1° et au 2°”, meaning a minimum of two months’ notice is granted to the account holder except in the cases at 1° and 2°, as article L. 312-1 of the Code monétaire et financier provides in its paragraph IV. The termination must arrive by letter, it must be reasoned unless reasoning would harm national security or public order, a copy goes to the Banque de France for information, and the letter must tell you about customer relations and mediation for disputes about the termination. Any closure letter missing these elements is vulnerable on its face, before the merits are even discussed.

The Cour de cassation, the French supreme court for civil and criminal matters, polices exactly this boundary, and its leading decision is worth quoting because banks still test it. On 30 June 2021, in case number 19-14.313, published in the Bulletin, the commercial chamber quashed a court of appeal ruling that had declared irregular a bank’s no-notice closure of a designated account. The Court held: “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. Constitue une utilisation délibérée du compte, au sens de ce texte, le fait, pour son titulaire, d’en communiquer les coordonnées à un cocontractant afin qu’il effectue un paiement par virement sur ce compte”, meaning the bank may unilaterally terminate a basic-services account opened under the right-to-an-account procedure where the customer has deliberately used it for operations the bank has reason to suspect of illegal purpose, in which case no notice is owed, and that merely passing the account details to a business partner so it can pay by transfer counts as deliberate use. The full decision, Cour de cassation, commercial chamber, 30 June 2021, no. 19-14.313, is therefore a double-edged precedent for British readers: it confirms that outside deliberate misuse for suspected illegal operations, the two-month notice is mandatory, and it warns that even an apparently innocent act, such as emailing your relevé d’identité bancaire, meaning your bank identity slip, to a business contact, can be characterised as use of the account. Never circulate the details of a designated account beyond genuine everyday payments, and never let a third party route business transfers through it.

II. How to open and keep a French account when every bank says no

A. What to file so a French bank can say yes to a British resident

Start with eligibility, because many British residents assume Brexit removed it. It did not. The right to open a deposit account belongs to “Toute personne physique ou morale domiciliée en France”, meaning every natural or legal person domiciled in France, as article L. 312-1 of the Code monétaire et financier states in its paragraph I, on the sole condition of holding no such account already in France. A British passport changes nothing: if your foyer, meaning your family and settled home, is in France, you are domiciled here for this purpose and the bank must examine your application on the same terms as a French applicant. The procedure the bank must then follow is fenced with deadlines. Once you have supplied every document the bank needs, “l’établissement procède à l’ouverture du compte de dépôt demandée par les personnes mentionnées au premier alinéa du présent II au plus tard dans les six jours ouvrés à compter de la réception de l’ensemble des pièces qui lui sont nécessaires à cet effet”, meaning the bank opens the requested deposit account no later than six working days after receiving all the documents it needs. Send the file by a traceable route and diary day six: a bank that sits on a complete file past that deadline is already in breach of the statute.

Prepare the file the way the bank’s compliance desk thinks. The bank is legally obliged to identify you before any relationship begins: article L. 561-5 of the Code monétaire et financier requires banks to “Identifient leur client et, le cas échéant, le bénéficiaire effectif au sens de l’article L. 561-2-2”, meaning identify their customer and where relevant the beneficial owner, and to “Vérifient ces éléments d’identification sur présentation de tout document écrit à caractère probant”, meaning verify those details against any probative written document. In practice that means your valid passport or Withdrawal Agreement residence card, proof of French address under three months old such as an electricity bill, rent receipt or attestation d’hébergement with the host’s papers, and proof of the origin of the funds you will transfer in, such as the British closure letter and your last British statements. Where the bank genuinely cannot complete these checks, article L. 561-8 of the same code provides that “elle n’exécute aucune opération, quelles qu’en soient les modalités, n’établit ni ne poursuit aucune relation d’affaires”, meaning it carries out no transaction and establishes or continues no business relationship, so a refusal grounded in documented anti-money-laundering doubt is lawful and must be answered with better evidence rather than with a complaint. Everything else, vague unease about a British passport, an expired address proof the bank refused to let you update, or a demand for a French tax notice you cannot yet produce in your first year, is negotiable, and the bank’s duty of transparency helps you: article R. 312-1 of the Code monétaire et financier provides that “Lorsqu’ils ouvrent un compte, les établissements de crédit doivent fournir à leurs clients, sur support papier ou sur un autre support durable, les conditions d’utilisation du compte, le prix des différents services auxquels il donne accès et les engagements réciproques de l’établissement et du client”, meaning banks must give new customers the account terms, the price of each service and the mutual commitments of bank and customer. Ask for those terms in writing; they become exhibits in your file.

Know what the account must contain if it is opened through the statutory route. The basic-services basket is fixed by article D. 312-5 of the Code monétaire et financier and covers “L’ouverture, la tenue et la clôture du compte”, meaning opening, maintenance and closure of the account, “La délivrance à la demande de relevés d’identité bancaire”, meaning bank identity slips on request, monthly statements, cheque and transfer collection, SEPA direct debits and transfers, remote balance consultation, cash deposits and withdrawals at the bank’s counters and machines, and “Une carte de paiement permettant notamment le paiement d’opérations sur internet et le retrait d’espèces dans l’Union européenne”, meaning a payment card allowing internet payments and cash withdrawals in the European Union. That basket is deliberately modest: no overdraft, no chequebook as of right, no premium card. Accept it as the bridge, not the destination. Once the designated account runs cleanly for several months, with salary or pension domiciled on it and no incident, return to the market with statements to prove it and negotiate a standard account, or keep the basic account and open a second standard account elsewhere, at which point the designating bank may end the basic-services arrangement, since holding a second account is one of the six statutory exit cases.

B. The droit au compte: turning a refusal into a designation within one working day

Refusal is where the statute takes over from commercial discretion. If the bank you approached refuses to open an account, it must give you the reasons for the refusal in writing without charge, and the official service-public guide states the rule that starts the clock: a bank that leaves an account application unanswered for fifteen days is deemed to have refused it, meaning a bank that does not answer an account application within fifteen days is deemed to have refused, as explained on the service-public page on refusal to open an account and the droit au compte. The fifteen days run from the acknowledgement of receipt of your registered letter or from the date you handed the file in over the counter, so always apply by lettre recommandée avec accusé de réception, meaning registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, or against a stamped receipt. Demand the attestation de refus, meaning the written certificate of refusal, on the spot: the refusing bank must supply it systematically, without charge and without delay, and it must inform you of the Banque de France procedure. Banks that mumble, that promise to call back, or that claim the computer said no without paper, are denying you the very document the statute entitles you to, and that conduct goes into your complaint.

With the refusal certificate in hand, you seize the Banque de France, which then designates a bank near your home or near any other place you choose, taking market shares into account, “dans un délai d’un jour ouvré à compter de la réception des pièces requises définies par arrêté”, meaning within one working day of receiving the required documents set by ministerial order, as article L. 312-1 of the Code monétaire et financier provides in its paragraph III. File the designation request with the refusal certificate, your identity and address proofs, and a statement that you hold no other deposit account in France. The designated bank must then open the basic-services account within the six-working-day rule, and from that moment you hold an account the bank cannot take away except through the six statutory cases and the reasoned letter with two months’ notice described in Part I. The same statute extends the procedure to customers listed in Banque de France incident files, so an old cheque irregularity or a credit incident does not disqualify you. If the designated bank delays, refuses to activate the card or the remote access, or closes the account without the required letter, escalate in this order: written complaint to the branch with copies of the designation and the statute, referral to the bank’s médiateur with the full exhibit bundle, complaint to the Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution, the French banking supervisor, which by statute controls compliance with the accessibility charter, and finally the tribunal judiciaire for an order to maintain the account and for damages. Readers facing the mirror-image succession problem, an English grant of probate the French bank will not honour, will find that route in our guide to getting English probate past the French notaire and the bank, which pairs naturally with this article.

Two traps deserve a final warning because they catch British customers every month. First, never present the French designation as a weapon in the branch. Clerks who feel threatened find reasons to slow files down; clerks who receive a calm, complete file with the refusal certificate, the statute reference and a polite deadline process it. Second, never use the new account to receive or forward money for anyone else, however harmless the request looks. The 2021 Cour de cassation decision quoted in Part I shows that forwarding your account details to a business contact can be held to be deliberate use exposing the account to no-notice termination where the bank suspects illegal purpose. Keep the account personal, everyday and boring: salary or pension in, rent, tax and living costs out, statements archived monthly. If you run a gîte, a consultancy or any business from France, that activity needs its own professional account, because company formation and business banking belong to a different legal track entirely, and mixing business flows through a personal designated account hands the bank the one argument the statute gives it.

Conclusion

A British resident in France whose London bank closes its doors is not left without banking, but the remedy is procedural and it rewards the methodical. On the British side, the end of passporting made the exits lawful in principle, while your contract’s notice clause and the two-month regulatory expectation make a brutal exit challengeable: keep the letter, count the days, demand a final response and escalate it. On the French side, domicile in France gives you the same right to an account as a French national, a complete file must be answered within six working days, silence for fifteen days counts as refusal, and that refusal is not the end but the trigger, because the Banque de France then designates a bank within one working day and the designated account carries a two-month notice floor against closure. The Cour de cassation’s 2021 ruling draws the single red line across the whole design: use the account normally and the bank cannot touch it without notice and reasons, lend its details to someone else’s operation and the protection falls away. Build the folder from day one, quote the exact article on each letter, and treat every deadline, six days, fifteen days, one working day, two months, as the load-bearing wall of your case.