{"id":2119463,"date":"2026-09-11T11:12:26","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T09:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kohenavocats.fr\/2026\/09\/11\/foreign-company-president-french-sas-permanent-representative-liability\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T11:14:54","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T09:14:54","slug":"foreign-company-president-french-sas-permanent-representative-liability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kohenavocats.fr\/en\/2026\/09\/11\/foreign-company-president-french-sas-permanent-representative-liability\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bank Refuses a US Company as President of Your French SAS: Permanent Representative, Greffe Rejection and Who Is Liable"},"content":{"rendered":"

The email from the French bank rarely uses the word \u201cillegal\u201d. It says the Kbis (extrait Kbis<\/em>, the official extract from the registre du commerce et des soci\u00e9t\u00e9s<\/em>, RCS) is \u201cincomplete\u201d, or that the pr\u00e9sident<\/em> of the SAS (soci\u00e9t\u00e9 par actions simplifi\u00e9e<\/em>) cannot be a Delaware corporation, or that the person who signed the account is not the repr\u00e9sentant permanent<\/em> (permanent representative) on the extract. The same week, the INPI (Institut national de la propri\u00e9t\u00e9 industrielle<\/em>) guichet unique<\/em> \u2014 the one-stop counter that now carries filings once made on paper at the greffe<\/em>, the commercial court\u2019s registry \u2014 may reject the appointment because the parent\u2019s papers have no sworn French translation, or because you tried to install the same US company as g\u00e9rant<\/em> (manager) of a SARL (soci\u00e9t\u00e9 \u00e0 responsabilit\u00e9 limit\u00e9e<\/em>).<\/p>\n

French company law draws a line that US and UK group charts often ignore. A SARL is managed only by natural persons. A SAS may have a legal person as pr\u00e9sident<\/em>, and that is when article L. 227-7 of the Commercial Code<\/a> pulls the officers of the foreign parent into French civil and criminal liability, unless the bylaws name a permanent representative. This article is for the parent just refused by the bank or the greffe<\/em>, and for the officer abroad told he is personally in the firing line. It is not hidden de facto management, which is a different claim<\/a>. The appointment mechanics and the Kbis file are described in the earlier guide on a foreign company as president of a French SAS<\/a>. It is the official mandate: who may hold it, what the RCS must show, who pays if the subsidiary fails, and how to contest a filing that the Paris commercial court registry has blocked.<\/p>\n

I. Can a foreign company be president of a French SAS, and why the greffe refuses it for a SARL<\/h2>\n

A. Why a SARL cannot have a company as g\u00e9rant and a SAS can<\/h3>\n

The first document to put on the table is not the bank\u2019s onboarding checklist. It is the form of the French company. Article L. 223-18 of the Commercial Code<\/a> opens with a sentence that ends the discussion for a SARL: \u201cLa soci\u00e9t\u00e9 \u00e0 responsabilit\u00e9 limit\u00e9e est g\u00e9r\u00e9e par une ou plusieurs personnes physiques.\u201d The company is managed by one or more natural persons. The rest of the article allows those managers to be chosen from outside the shareholders and to be named in the bylaws or by a later decision, but it never opens the door to a corporate g\u00e9rant<\/em>. A Delaware Inc., a UK Ltd or a Luxembourg S.\u00e0 r.l. cannot sit in that seat. If the INPI file or the Kbis draft shows a legal person as g\u00e9rant<\/em>, the greffe<\/em> is not being difficult: it is applying a statutory prohibition.<\/p>\n

The SAS is built on the opposite default. Article L. 227-6 of the Commercial Code<\/a> states: \u201cLa soci\u00e9t\u00e9 est repr\u00e9sent\u00e9e \u00e0 l’\u00e9gard des tiers par un pr\u00e9sident d\u00e9sign\u00e9 dans les conditions pr\u00e9vues par les statuts. Le pr\u00e9sident est investi des pouvoirs les plus \u00e9tendus pour agir en toute circonstance au nom de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 dans la limite de l’objet social.\u201d The company is represented towards third parties by a president appointed under the bylaws, with the widest powers to act in the company\u2019s name within the corporate purpose (objet social<\/em>). The article does not say that the president must be a human being. Article L. 227-7<\/a> then assumes the contrary and regulates it: \u201cLorsqu’une personne morale est nomm\u00e9e pr\u00e9sident ou dirigeant d’une soci\u00e9t\u00e9 par actions simplifi\u00e9e, les dirigeants de ladite personne morale sont soumis aux m\u00eames conditions et obligations et encourent les m\u00eames responsabilit\u00e9s civile et p\u00e9nale que s’ils \u00e9taient pr\u00e9sident ou dirigeant en leur nom propre, sans pr\u00e9judice de la responsabilit\u00e9 solidaire de la personne morale qu’ils dirigent.\u201d When a legal person is appointed president or officer of a SAS, the officers of that legal person are subject to the same conditions and obligations and incur the same civil and criminal liabilities as if they were president in their own name, without prejudice to the joint and several liability of the legal person they manage.<\/p>\n

That is the legal reason a foreign parent can be pr\u00e9sident<\/em> of a French SAS and cannot be g\u00e9rant<\/em> of a French SARL. It is also why the choice between SAS and SARL<\/a> is not only about social-security bills and dividend withholding. If the group chart requires the parent itself to hold the French mandate \u2014 because the bank in New York wants a single signatory chain, because the directors\u2019 and officers\u2019 policy is written at parent level, or because no individual will accept a French Kbis \u2014 the vehicle has to be a SAS, or the French company has to appoint a natural person. Trying to \u201cfix\u201d a SARL by naming the parent as manager produces a rejection, not a workaround.<\/p>\n

The SA (soci\u00e9t\u00e9 anonyme<\/em>, the classic public limited company) sits in between, and the contrast matters when a banker or a greffe<\/em> clerk quotes the wrong article. Article L. 225-20 of the Commercial Code<\/a> says, for a member of the board: \u201cUne personne morale peut \u00eatre nomm\u00e9e administrateur. Lors de sa nomination, elle est tenue de d\u00e9signer un repr\u00e9sentant permanent qui est soumis aux m\u00eames conditions et obligations et qui encourt les m\u00eames responsabilit\u00e9s civile et p\u00e9nale que s’il \u00e9tait administrateur en son nom propre, sans pr\u00e9judice de la responsabilit\u00e9 solidaire de la personne morale qu’il repr\u00e9sente.\u201d A legal person may be appointed director. Upon appointment it must designate a permanent representative, who incurs the same civil and criminal liabilities as if he were a director in his own name, without prejudice to the joint liability of the legal person. The SAS rule in L. 227-7 is broader and, until 2023-2024, more dangerous: it does not, on its face, require a named permanent representative; it points to \u201cthe officers\u201d of the parent. That is the trap the Cour de cassation has now organised around the bylaws, which is the subject of Part II.<\/p>\n

Third parties, including the bank, are entitled to rely on the person who appears as pr\u00e9sident<\/em> on the Kbis. Article L. 227-6 adds that the company is bound even by acts of the president that fall outside the corporate purpose, unless it proves that the third party knew the act exceeded that purpose or could not have been unaware of it given the circumstances, \u201c\u00e9tant exclu que la seule publication des statuts suffise \u00e0 constituer cette preuve\u201d \u2014 the mere publication of the bylaws is not that proof. Statutory limits on the president\u2019s powers are \u201cinopposables aux tiers\u201d (not binding on third parties). A foreign parent that accepts the mandate therefore accepts a French face towards every supplier, landlord and credit institution, whether or not the group\u2019s internal matrix says that only the CFO in London may sign.<\/p>\n

None of this requires the president, or the permanent representative, to reside in France. What it does require is a form that the law allows, a decision taken in the manner the bylaws prescribe, and a RCS file that a third party can read. The incorporation sequence<\/a> \u2014 capital deposit, registered office, Kbis, VAT, first hire \u2014 is the same whether the president is a human or a company. The difference is the extra layer of foreign corporate documents and the extra liability channel that L. 227-7 opens into the parent\u2019s own board.<\/p>\n

B. What INPI, the greffe and the bank actually want on the file<\/h3>\n

The RCS is not a private database of the company. Article L. 123-1 of the Commercial Code<\/a> provides: \u201cIl est tenu un registre du commerce et des soci\u00e9t\u00e9s auquel sont immatricul\u00e9s, sur leur d\u00e9claration :\u201d companies with their seat in a French d\u00e9partement<\/em>, among others, so that the inscriptions and the documents filed are brought to the public\u2019s knowledge. The filing itself now travels through the INPI guichet unique<\/em>. The legal effect still sits in the RCS held by the greffier<\/em> (registrar) of the commercial court. In Paris, that office publishes its own guidance as the greffe of the Tribunal des activit\u00e9s \u00e9conomiques de Paris. A rejection at the guichet unique<\/em> is therefore not a mere IT incident: it is a refusal to write a public fact that banks, landlords and courts will later treat as the truth of who binds the company.<\/p>\n

Article R. 123-54 of the Commercial Code<\/a>, in the version in force since 6 May 2026, lists what the company must declare about its officers. For natural persons it wants names, date and place of birth, personal domicile and nationality, and, for those who can bind a commercial company, whether they bind it alone or jointly. When those persons \u201csont des personnes morales\u201d, the file must show \u201cla d\u00e9nomination sociale, la forme juridique, l’adresse du si\u00e8ge\u201d and then a fork that is written for foreign groups. For a French legal person already on the register, cross-references suffice. For a company from another EU or EEA State, \u201cle num\u00e9ro et le lieu d’immatriculation dans un registre public\u201d. For the case that matches a US, Singapore or Dubai parent: \u201cPour les personnes morales non immatricul\u00e9es ou relevant de la l\u00e9gislation d’un Etat non membre de la Communaut\u00e9 europ\u00e9enne ou partie \u00e0 l’accord sur l’Espace \u00e9conomique europ\u00e9en, les nom, nom d’usage, pseudonyme, pr\u00e9noms et domicile des personnes ayant le pouvoir de les diriger, g\u00e9rer ou engager \u00e0 titre habituel.\u201d The names and domicile of the people who have power to direct, manage or bind the foreign parent in the ordinary course must go on the French RCS. Point 3\u00b0 d) then adds: \u201cLorsque la d\u00e9signation d’un repr\u00e9sentant permanent est pr\u00e9vue par un texte, les renseignements le concernant mentionn\u00e9s au 2\u00b0.\u201d When a text requires a permanent representative, that person\u2019s identity is declared as for a natural-person officer.<\/p>\n

The Paris greffe has published the operational reading of that fork. Where a statute requires a permanent representative \u2014 a board member of a SA, for example \u2014 that representative is always declared, and if the legal person is a non-EU company the legal representative of the parent is declared as well, so that two natural persons may appear. For a SAS, the same greffe page states that a non-EU or non-EEA corporate officer must declare the identity of its legal representative. That is why a Delaware parent cannot hide behind a company name on the Kbis: the RCS will ask for a human being, either as permanent representative or as the person who directs the parent. The bank\u2019s KYC team is not inventing a rule when it asks for that person\u2019s passport, proof of address and, very often, a French-language copy of the parent\u2019s constitutional documents.<\/p>\n

Those foreign documents do not travel in English. The INPI file and the greffe<\/em> still work in French. A certificate of incorporation, a good-standing extract, a board resolution appointing the French SAS as a subsidiary and naming the individual who will be permanent representative, and the parent\u2019s own bylaws, have to arrive as a sworn translation by a traducteur asserment\u00e9<\/em> (translator sworn before a French court of appeal) when the clerk cannot read the original. That is a separate, practical bottleneck, already mapped for foreign filings. An apostille under the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 may also be required on the public document before it is translated. A file that omits either step comes back as \u201cpi\u00e8ce non conforme\u201d (non-compliant exhibit), which the bank will repeat in its own language as \u201cwe cannot identify the legal representative\u201d.<\/p>\n

The appointment itself must exist in French company law before anyone uploads it. For a SAS, article L. 227-6 sends you to the bylaws. If the bylaws say that the president is appointed by a collective decision of the shareholders, a written decision of the foreign parent as sole shareholder, or minutes of a general meeting, must name the legal person, accept the mandate, and \u2014 if you follow the 2024 case law discussed below \u2014 designate the permanent representative in the same instrument or in the bylaws. If the bylaws are silent on a corporate president, they should be amended first. Changing the pr\u00e9sident<\/em> is a registrable event. It is not a side letter between the CFO and the French accountant.<\/p>\n

The beneficial-owner register (registre des b\u00e9n\u00e9ficiaires effectifs<\/em>, RBE, now carried in the national company register) is a parallel file, not a substitute. The natural persons who ultimately own or control the French SAS still have to be declared even if the president is the parent company. A bank that has frozen the account over a RBE mismatch will not unfreeze it merely because the Kbis now shows a Delaware president. The two registers have to tell the same story about who stands behind the French company.<\/p>\n

In Paris and \u00cele-de-France the practical sequence is unforgiving. The INPI filing is national, but the RCS of a company with its seat in Paris is still watched by the Paris commercial court under article L. 123-6 of the Commercial Code<\/a>. A landlord in the 8th arrondissement, a corporate banker at La D\u00e9fense and a huissier<\/em> (bailiff) serving a writ at a domiciliation address will all read the same Kbis. If the extract shows a foreign company as pr\u00e9sident<\/em> and no individual who can be served or who can open the account, the file stops. The way out is not an English-language power of attorney emailed to the relationship manager. It is a complete RCS picture: parent identified, human being identified, documents translated, bylaws aligned.<\/p>\n

II. Who is liable after the appointment and how to contest a rejection or a personal claim<\/h2>\n

A. Article L. 227-7, the permanent-representative clause, and the 2023-2024 split at the Cour de cassation<\/h3>\n

Once the parent is on the Kbis as pr\u00e9sident<\/em>, three liability channels open at once, and they are not the same. The first is the company\u2019s own liability towards third parties under article L. 227-6: the SAS is bound. The second is the civil liability of the president towards the company and, in narrow cases, towards third parties. Article L. 227-8 of the Commercial Code<\/a> states: \u201cLes r\u00e8gles fixant la responsabilit\u00e9 des membres du conseil d’administration et du directoire des soci\u00e9t\u00e9s anonymes sont applicables au pr\u00e9sident et aux dirigeants de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 par actions simplifi\u00e9e.\u201d The rules that fix the liability of SA directors and management-board members apply to the president and officers of the SAS. Those rules sit in article L. 225-251<\/a>: \u201cLes administrateurs et le directeur g\u00e9n\u00e9ral sont responsables individuellement ou solidairement selon le cas, envers la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 ou envers les tiers, soit des infractions aux dispositions l\u00e9gislatives ou r\u00e9glementaires applicables aux soci\u00e9t\u00e9s anonymes, soit des violations des statuts, soit des fautes commises dans leur gestion.\u201d Directors and the managing director are liable, individually or jointly and severally as the case may be, to the company or to third parties, for breaches of SA legislation, breaches of the bylaws, or faults committed in their management.<\/p>\n

Towards third parties, that civil channel is not a general guarantee of the company\u2019s debts. On 17 September 2025 the commercial chamber of the Cour de cassation, in decision no. 21-11.647<\/a>, recalled, after citing L. 225-251 and L. 227-8: \u201cIl r\u00e9sulte de ces textes que la responsabilit\u00e9 personnelle du pr\u00e9sident d’une soci\u00e9t\u00e9 par actions simplifi\u00e9e \u00e0 l’\u00e9gard des tiers ne peut \u00eatre retenue que s’il a commis une faute s\u00e9parable de ses fonctions et qu’il en est ainsi lorsqu’il commet intentionnellement une faute d’une particuli\u00e8re gravit\u00e9, incompatible avec l’exercice normal des fonctions.\u201d Personal liability of a SAS president towards third parties can be retained only if he committed a fault separable from his functions, which is the case when he intentionally commits a fault of particular gravity, incompatible with the normal exercise of the office. A simple management fault is not enough. The Court quashed a court of appeal that had held a president personally liable to clients for a \u201cfaute de gestion\u201d in an insurance declaration. The foreign officer who is being sued by a French supplier on the mere ground that \u201cyou were the president\u201d therefore has a defence \u2014 unless the facts are recast as an intentional, particularly serious fault, or as a criminal offence, or as insolvency liability.<\/p>\n

The criminal channel is explicit. Article L. 244-1 of the Commercial Code<\/a> applies to the SAS the SA offences and adds: \u201cLes peines pr\u00e9vues pour le pr\u00e9sident, les administrateurs ou les directeurs g\u00e9n\u00e9raux des soci\u00e9t\u00e9s anonymes sont applicables au pr\u00e9sident et aux dirigeants des soci\u00e9t\u00e9s par actions simplifi\u00e9es.\u201d The penalties provided for the president, directors or managing directors of an SA apply to the president and officers of a SAS. Article L. 242-6<\/a> includes the misuse of company assets: it punishes with five years\u2019 imprisonment and a fine of 375,000 euros the fact for the president, directors or managing directors of an SA \u201cde faire, de mauvaise foi, des biens ou du cr\u00e9dit de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9, un usage qu’ils savent contraire \u00e0 l’int\u00e9r\u00eat de celle-ci, \u00e0 des fins personnelles ou pour favoriser une autre soci\u00e9t\u00e9 ou entreprise dans laquelle ils sont int\u00e9ress\u00e9s directement ou indirectement\u201d. Using, in bad faith, the company\u2019s assets or credit in a way they know is contrary to its interest, for personal ends or to favour another company in which they are interested. That is the classic abus de biens sociaux<\/em>. Through L. 227-7 and L. 244-1, it is the wording a French prosecutor can read onto the officers of a foreign parent that has taken the SAS presidency, if cash or intra-group credit has been pulled out of the French company.<\/p>\n

The insolvency channel is the one that has moved in the last two years, and it is the one that should decide how the bylaws are drafted. Article L. 651-1 of the Commercial Code<\/a> provides: \u201cLes dispositions du pr\u00e9sent chapitre sont applicables aux dirigeants d’une personne morale de droit priv\u00e9 soumise \u00e0 une proc\u00e9dure collective, ainsi qu’aux personnes physiques repr\u00e9sentants permanents de ces dirigeants personnes morales, aux entrepreneurs individuels \u00e0 responsabilit\u00e9 limit\u00e9e et aux entrepreneurs individuels relevant du statut d\u00e9fini \u00e0 la section 3 du chapitre VI du titre II du livre V.\u201d The chapter on liability for insufficiency of assets applies to the officers of a private legal person in collective proceedings, and to the natural persons who are permanent representatives of those officers when the officers are themselves legal persons. Article L. 651-2<\/a> then allows the court, when a judicial liquidation reveals an insufficiency of assets, in the event of a management fault that contributed to that insufficiency, to decide that the amount \u201csera support\u00e9, en tout ou en partie, par tous les dirigeants de droit ou de fait, ou par certains d’entre eux, ayant contribu\u00e9 \u00e0 la faute de gestion\u201d. Simple negligence is not enough: \u201cToutefois, en cas de simple n\u00e9gligence du dirigeant de droit ou de fait dans la gestion de la personne morale, sa responsabilit\u00e9 au titre de l’insuffisance d’actif ne peut \u00eatre engag\u00e9e.\u201d<\/p>\n

On 8 January 2020, in decision no. 18-15.027<\/a>, published in the Bulletin, the commercial chamber held, for a SA: \u201cil r\u00e9sulte de l’article L. 651-1 du code de commerce que la responsabilit\u00e9 pour insuffisance d’actif, encourue sur le fondement de l’article L. 651-2 du m\u00eame code, est notamment applicable aux dirigeants d’une personne morale de droit priv\u00e9 soumise \u00e0 une proc\u00e9dure collective et aux personnes physiques repr\u00e9sentants permanents de ces dirigeants personnes morales\u201d. It then applied L. 225-20 and added that when a SA is directed by a legal person that has designated a permanent representative, the management fault can be characterised \u201cindiff\u00e9remment \u00e0 l’\u00e9gard de celui-ci ou \u00e0 l’\u00e9gard de son repr\u00e9sentant permanent\u201d \u2014 interchangeably against the legal person or against the permanent representative. On 19 November 2013, in decision no. 12-16.099<\/a>, also published in the Bulletin, the same chamber had already judged that article L. 651-1 \u201cne subordonne pas la condamnation du repr\u00e9sentant permanent de la personne morale \u00e0 la condamnation de celle-ci\u201d. The liquidator of a French SAS whose president was a Luxembourg company did not have to obtain a judgment against the Luxembourg company before obtaining one against the individual. A foreign parent that thinks \u201cthey will only sue the Delaware entity\u201d is reading a rule the Cour de cassation has refused.<\/p>\n

The SAS-specific pair of 2023 and 2024 is what a foreign general counsel should put in the board pack. On 13 December 2023, in decision no. 21-14.579<\/a>, published in the Bulletin, the commercial chamber held: \u201cIl r\u00e9sulte de la combinaison des articles L. 227-7, L. 651-1 et L. 651-2 du code de commerce que, lorsque la personne morale mise en liquidation judiciaire est une soci\u00e9t\u00e9 par actions simplifi\u00e9e (SAS) dirig\u00e9e par une personne morale, la responsabilit\u00e9 pour insuffisance d’actif, pr\u00e9vue par le troisi\u00e8me texte pr\u00e9cit\u00e9, est encourue non seulement par cette personne morale, dirigeant de droit, mais aussi par le repr\u00e9sentant l\u00e9gal de cette derni\u00e8re, en l’absence d’obligation l\u00e9gale ou statutaire de d\u00e9signer un repr\u00e9sentant permanent de la personne morale dirigeant au sein d’une SAS.\u201d In the absence of a legal or statutory obligation to designate a permanent representative of the corporate officer inside the SAS, insufficiency-of-assets liability is incurred not only by that corporate officer but also by its own legal representative. The Court applied the same combination to a legal person that was only a de facto director of the SAS, and added that the management fault can be characterised \u201cindiff\u00e9remment \u00e0 l’\u00e9gard de celui-ci ou \u00e0 l’\u00e9gard de son repr\u00e9sentant l\u00e9gal\u201d.<\/p>\n

Eleven months later the same chamber drew the counterpart. On 20 November 2024, in decision no. 23-17.842<\/a>, published in the Bulletin, it quashed a Lyon court of appeal that had condemned, as a matter of course, the natural person who directed a Swiss company which itself directed a French SAS. The appeal court had said that L. 225-20 applies only to SAs and that, under L. 227-7, the Swiss director \u201cne peut qu’avoir \u00e9galement la qualit\u00e9 de dirigeant de droit\u201d of the French SAS. The Cour de cassation answered: \u201cIl r\u00e9sulte de l’article L. 651-1 du code de commerce que la responsabilit\u00e9 pour insuffisance d’actif, encourue sur le fondement de l’article L. 651-2 du m\u00eame code, est applicable aux personnes physiques repr\u00e9sentants permanents des dirigeants personnes morales.\u201d Then: \u201cLorsqu’une soci\u00e9t\u00e9 par actions simplifi\u00e9e est dirig\u00e9e par une personne morale qui a d\u00e9sign\u00e9 un repr\u00e9sentant permanent conform\u00e9ment aux statuts de cette soci\u00e9t\u00e9, la personne physique dirigeant cette personne morale ne peut voir sa responsabilit\u00e9 pour insuffisance d’actif engag\u00e9e si elle n’a pas \u00e9galement la qualit\u00e9 de repr\u00e9sentant permanent.\u201d When a SAS is directed by a legal person that has designated a permanent representative in accordance with the SAS bylaws, the natural person who directs that legal person cannot be held on L. 651-2 if he does not also have the capacity of permanent representative. The appeal court had not even looked at whether the French bylaws had named another individual as permanent representative. That missing inquiry was enough for cassation, and it carried with it the personal bankruptcy measure (faillite personnelle<\/em>) that had been stacked on the same capacity.<\/p>\n

The drafting lesson is brutal and useful. If the French SAS bylaws say nothing about a permanent representative, L. 227-7 and the 2023 judgment leave the legal representatives of the foreign parent exposed on insufficiency of assets. If the bylaws require a named permanent representative and that person is the one on the Kbis, the 2024 judgment gives the other officers of the parent an argument that they are not dirigeants de droit<\/em> of the French SAS for L. 651-2. The argument does not erase L. 227-7 for criminal law, does not erase a de facto-director case against someone who actually ran the subsidiary from abroad, and does not erase a separable fault towards a third party. It does mean that \u201cwe appointed the parent as president\u201d is no longer a sentence that should be typed without a named individual and a bylaw clause.<\/p>\n

A SARL does not offer that architecture, because there is no corporate g\u00e9rant<\/em> to begin with. Article L. 223-22<\/a> makes the natural-person managers liable to the company or to third parties for breaches of SARL rules, breaches of the bylaws, or management faults, and it treats as unwritten any clause that would subject the derivative action to a prior shareholder vote. The foreign founder who wanted the parent to be the manager of a SARL is not looking at a lighter regime. He is looking at a legally impossible appointment, and then at a human g\u00e9rant<\/em> who carries L. 223-22 in his own name.<\/p>\n

B. How to challenge a greffe refusal, a bank freeze, or an insufficiency-of-assets claim in Paris<\/h3>\n

The first contest is the filing. If the INPI guichet unique<\/em> or the greffe<\/em> refuses to register the parent as pr\u00e9sident<\/em>, or refuses the named permanent representative, the dispute is not a customer-service ticket. Article L. 123-6 of the Commercial Code<\/a> states that the RCS \u201cest tenu par le greffier de chaque tribunal de commerce, sous la surveillance du pr\u00e9sident ou d’un juge commis \u00e0 cet effet, qui sont comp\u00e9tents pour toutes contestations entre l’assujetti et le greffier\u201d. The register is kept by the registrar of each commercial court, under the supervision of the president or of a judge assigned for that purpose, who have jurisdiction over all disputes between the person subject to registration and the registrar. For a company seated in Paris, that judge sits in the Paris commercial court. The application should attach the rejection, the bylaws, the parent\u2019s corporate documents and their sworn translations, the decision appointing the parent and the permanent representative, and a note that identifies which limb of R. 123-54 the clerk is said to have misread. An implicit refusal \u2014 silence after a complete filing \u2014 is still a decision that L. 123-6 allows the court to review.<\/p>\n

If the rejection is well founded, the remedy is to rebuild the file, not to argue with the bank. Typical defects are a SARL with a corporate g\u00e9rant<\/em>; a SAS whose bylaws do not allow a legal person as president; a non-EU parent with no natural person identified as required by R. 123-54, 3\u00b0 c); a permanent representative who is not the person named in the bylaws; a translation that is not sworn; a parent extract that is out of date. Each of those is curable. None of them is cured by a comfort letter from a US attorney that \u201cunder Delaware law the corporation may serve as a director of a subsidiary\u201d.<\/p>\n

The second contest is the bank. French credit institutions treat the Kbis as the map of who may open and operate the account. If the extract shows a foreign company as pr\u00e9sident<\/em> and the bank cannot complete KYC on that company and on the individual who actually signs, the account stays closed or is frozen. That is a different freeze from an AML review of a foreign shareholder or from a missing RBE filing, but the operational result is the same: payroll does not leave. The answer is to put on the Kbis the person the bank can identify, and to keep the parent as president only if the permanent representative is prepared to be that person. A power of attorney given by the parent to a French accountant does not replace a RCS mention. Third parties are not bound by an unpublished internal mandate.<\/p>\n

The third contest is personal. A liquidator who serves an L. 651-2 writ on the CEO of the foreign parent should be met with the 2023-2024 pair, not with a general denial. The questions are factual and must be in the first submissions: Was the French company a SAS? Was the parent the pr\u00e9sident<\/em> of record, or only alleged to be a de facto director? Did the bylaws require a permanent representative? Who was named, and who appeared on the Kbis? Is the defendant that named person, or another officer of the parent? Has the liquidator pleaded a management fault that is more than simple negligence, as L. 651-2 now requires? The 2013 judgment shows that the parent need not have been sued first. The 2020 judgment shows that the fault can be made out against the legal person or against the permanent representative. The 2024 judgment shows that an officer who is not the permanent representative, where the bylaws created that office, is not automatically a dirigeant de droit<\/em> of the French SAS. Mixing those holdings is how a defence is lost.<\/p>\n

If the writ is not an insolvency claim but a supplier\u2019s action against the individual, decision no. 21-11.647 of 17 September 2025 is the first filter: a separable, intentional, particularly serious fault, not a mere management mistake. If the file is a criminal investigation for abus de biens sociaux<\/em>, L. 242-6 through L. 244-1 and L. 227-7 is the grid, and a French criminal lawyer needs the intra-group cash movements, not a group policy memo. If the liquidator has also pleaded de facto management, that is the neighbouring action already discussed for foreign parents, and it has its own proof (positive, independent management) that should not be conceded in a sentence about the official mandate.<\/p>\n

Time and geography matter. Insufficiency-of-assets claims are brought in the insolvency court that opened the French proceedings. For a Paris SAS that is usually the Paris commercial court, sitting in its insolvency formation. A dispute with the greffe<\/em> about the Kbis goes to the president of that court or the judge assigned under L. 123-6. A bank dispute follows the jurisdiction clause in the account agreement, often a Paris court. Serving an individual who lives in the United Arab Emirates, as in the 2024 case, does not stop the French court from ruling on his capacity as officer of the French SAS. What stops it, when it stops, is a correct reading of the bylaws and of L. 651-1, not the foreign domicile.<\/p>\n

The clean reconstruction, when the group still wants the parent on the Kbis, is therefore a short list. Convert a SARL that needs a corporate officer into a SAS, or appoint a natural person. Amend the SAS bylaws so that a legal person may be president and so that a permanent representative must be designated. Pass a shareholder decision that names the parent and the individual in the same instrument. File through the INPI guichet unique<\/em> with sworn translations and, for a non-EU parent, the identity of the persons who bind that parent. Align the RBE. Hand the bank a Kbis that shows both the parent and the human being who will sign. Keep the board minutes of the parent that show who accepted to be that human being, because that is the person L. 651-1 and L. 227-7 will look for if the French company later fails.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

A foreign company can be president of a French SAS. It cannot be manager of a French SARL. Article L. 223-18 confines the SARL to natural persons. Articles L. 227-6 and L. 227-7 allow a legal person to represent a SAS and, in the same breath, extend French civil and criminal liability to the officers of that legal person, jointly with the parent itself. Article R. 123-54 then forces the RCS, especially for a non-EU parent, to show the humans who actually direct that parent, and to show a permanent representative when a text requires one. The Paris greffe<\/em> and the INPI guichet unique<\/em> are applying those texts when they reject a file, not inventing a nationality bar.<\/p>\n

The Cour de cassation has spent five years telling liquidators and defendants who, among those humans, can be ordered to cover an insufficiency of assets. In 2013 it refused to make a judgment against the foreign parent a precondition. In 2020 it allowed the fault to be made out against the legal person or against the permanent representative of a SA. In 2023 it held that, for a SAS with no legal or bylaw duty to name a permanent representative, the legal representative of the corporate president is in the firing line. In 2024 it held that where the SAS bylaws have named a permanent representative, another officer of the parent is not, for that reason alone, a dirigeant de droit<\/em> of the French company. In 2025 it repeated that a SAS president is not personally liable to third parties for a mere management fault. The foreign parent that wants the mandate without reading those holdings is buying a Kbis that the bank may still refuse and a liability that the bylaws could have organised. The parent that has already been refused, or already been sued, should put the form of the company, the bylaws, the Kbis and the writ in front of a French lawyer before the next filing repeats the same gap.<\/p>\n

Need a quick opinion on your case.<\/h2>\n

Our firm offers a telephone consultation within 48 hours with an avocat of the cabinet, to read the Kbis, the bylaws, the INPI rejection or the bank letter, and the instrument that appointed the foreign company as pr\u00e9sident.<\/p>\n

The discussion is built on your documents: the current extract, the parent\u2019s corporate papers and sworn translations, the decision naming the permanent representative, and any writ or mise en demeure already served on an officer abroad.<\/p>\n

Call Ma\u00eetre Reda Kohen on +33 6 46 60 58 22<\/a> (06 46 60 58 22 in France) or use the firm\u2019s contact form<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The firm advises companies in Paris and \u00cele-de-France, including before the Tribunal de commerce de Paris and the commercial courts of the inner suburbs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A foreign parent can be pr\u00e9sident of a French SAS but not g\u00e9rant of a SARL. 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