Browse banks, EMIs, PSPs and other organizations in France that hold a SWIFT/BIC code. See correspondent banking data and review the country's payment requirements.
France's currency is the euro (EUR), a freely floating, fully convertible reserve currency. France is a founding member of the euro area, which introduced the euro in 1999, and monetary policy is set by the European Central Bank and implemented domestically by the Banque de France. There are no exchange or capital controls: under EU single-market rules residents and non-residents may hold, buy and transfer any currency without approval, and France accepted IMF Article VIII obligations. Cross-border payments between residents and non-residents of EUR 50,000 or more carry a monthly statistical report to the Banque de France for balance-of-payments purposes, but this is a reporting formality, not an approval, and it does not delay the payment. France uses IBAN: a French IBAN is 27 characters, made up of FR, two check digits, a five-digit code banque (the bank code assigned by the Banque de France), a five-digit code guichet (branch code), an eleven-character account number, and a two-digit RIB key. These details also appear on the account holder's RIB (releve d'identite bancaire), the standard French account-identification document. As a Eurozone and SEPA member, euro credit transfers and direct debits to and from France run on SEPA rails at the same price as domestic payments.
Inbound cross-border payments arrive by SWIFT (MT103 or the ISO 20022 MX equivalent) and then settle domestically. Large-value euro payments settle in central bank money through TARGET (T2), the Eurosystem real-time gross settlement system; retail euro flows clear through CORE(FR), the French retail clearing system, and pan-European SEPA infrastructure. SEPA Instant credit transfers run around the clock, complete within seconds and carry up to EUR 100,000, and since 2025 every euro-area payment provider must both send and receive them. Since 9 October 2025 those providers must also run a free Verification of Payee check, matching the beneficiary name against the IBAN before a SEPA transfer is released, so an accurate beneficiary name now matters as much as the account number. To credit a beneficiary without delay an instruction typically needs:
France has no purpose-of-payment code requirement for cross-border transfers, and there are no domestic clearing codes for international routing, so the SWIFT BIC is the key routing identifier and the IBAN identifies the account. Detailed remittance information is recommended for smooth processing. Messaging is now fully ISO 20022: T2 migrated in 2023 and the SWIFT cross-border CBPR+ coexistence period closed in November 2025. Using a beneficiary's initials instead of the full registered name is a common cause of delay.
On compliance, France is a founding FATF member and hosts the FATF in Paris; it sits on neither the FATF grey nor black list. Its 2022 mutual evaluation found a robust and effective anti-money-laundering framework, with the main improvement areas around risk-based supervision of non-financial professions, and it reports under routine follow-up. France is an OECD CRS/AEOI jurisdiction and has exchanged financial-account information automatically since 2017. Anti-money-laundering rules rest on the Code monetaire et financier, which transposes the EU directives, supervised by ACPR for banks alongside the ECB for the largest institutions, with suspicious transactions reported through the ERMES portal to the financial intelligence unit, TRACFIN, under the Ministry of the Economy and Finance. On sanctions, France implements UN measures and applies EU restrictive measures directly, and additionally maintains its own national asset-freezing measures for counterterrorism and protection of national interests, administered by the Direction generale du Tresor, so screen counterparties before you pay. From July 2027 a single EU anti-money-laundering rulebook applies, and the EU's new Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA), based in Frankfurt, has been operational since 2025.
Cryptoassets are legal in France and regulated under the EU MiCA framework. The AMF (Autorite des marches financiers) is the national competent authority for crypto-asset service providers, while e-money tokens (stablecoins) are supervised as electronic money by the ACPR. Crypto-asset service providers must hold a CASP authorization; France's transitional regime for providers previously registered or licensed under the PACTE law ended on 30 June 2026, so since 1 July 2026 only MiCA-authorized CASPs may provide crypto-asset services in France. Banks may offer crypto services with the appropriate authorization, and France was among the first EU jurisdictions to authorize e-money tokens under MiCA. Crypto is not legal tender, the euro remains the sole legal tender, and gains are taxed under French rules. A central bank digital currency, the digital euro, is a European Central Bank project: its preparation phase completed in October 2025, a pilot is planned for the second half of 2027, and earliest issuance is around 2029, contingent on the EU legislation, which is still moving through the legislative process; no decision to issue it has been taken.
Banks, EMIs, PSPs and other organizations with an assigned BIC. Click any entry for SWIFT/BIC details, correspondent banking data and supported currencies.
Yes. France uses IBAN, and a French IBAN is 27 characters: FR, two check digits, a five-digit code banque (bank code), a five-digit code guichet (branch code), an eleven-character account number, and a two-digit RIB key. These details also appear on the account holder's RIB (releve d'identite bancaire). For an inbound SWIFT payment you need the beneficiary's IBAN and the beneficiary bank's SWIFT BIC; there are no separate domestic clearing codes for cross-border routing.
No. France is a founding FATF member and hosts the FATF in Paris; it is on neither the FATF grey list (jurisdictions under increased monitoring) nor the black list as of 2026. Its 2022 mutual evaluation found a robust and effective anti-money-laundering framework, with improvements tracked under routine follow-up.
Euro payments reach France over SEPA: SEPA Credit Transfers and SEPA Instant Credit Transfers move euro to and from French accounts at the same cost as domestic transfers, with instant transfers settling within seconds around the clock up to EUR 100,000. Payments from outside the euro area arrive by SWIFT and settle domestically, with large values passing through the Eurosystem's TARGET (T2) system and retail euro flows clearing through the French CORE(FR) system. To route funds you need the beneficiary's IBAN and the beneficiary bank's SWIFT BIC, plus the full name and address of both the ordering and beneficiary customers; since October 2025 the beneficiary name is also checked against the IBAN before a euro transfer is released.
Yes. France is an OECD Common Reporting Standard (CRS) / Automatic Exchange of Information jurisdiction and has exchanged financial-account information automatically since 2017. Reporting financial institutions identify accounts held by tax residents of other participating jurisdictions and report them to the French tax authorities for annual exchange.
Cryptoassets are legal in France and regulated under the EU Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), with the AMF (Autorite des marches financiers) as the national competent authority for crypto-asset service providers and the ACPR supervising e-money tokens (stablecoins). Crypto-asset service providers must hold a CASP authorization; France's transitional regime for providers previously registered under the PACTE law ended on 30 June 2026, so since 1 July 2026 only MiCA-authorized CASPs may provide crypto-asset services in France. Banks may offer crypto services with the appropriate authorization. Crypto is not legal tender, the euro remains the sole legal tender, and gains are taxed under French rules. Separately, the digital euro, a possible central bank digital currency, is a European Central Bank project whose preparation phase completed in October 2025, with a pilot planned for the second half of 2027; the enabling EU legislation is still in progress and no decision to issue it has been taken.
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