Fintech & payments regulation in France (2026)

Yes. To provide electronic-money or payment services in France you need authorisation as an Electronic Money Institution (EMI), supervised by the Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution (ACPR), under the EU E-Money Directive (2009/110/EC) and the Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2).

The Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution (ACPR).

Application and supervisory fees that vary by country (often €5,000–€25,000), plus safeguarding and audit costs.

Typically roughly 3–12 months; the regulator has up to 3 months to decide once the application is complete.

The application file centres on programme of operations listing each payment service you will provide; business plan with a three-year budget forecast; evidence of the €350,000 initial capital; governance arrangements and internal-control mechanisms; plus fit-and-proper evidence for directors and qualifying shareholders.

Incorporate in the member state and establish real local substance (registered office and part of the business conducted there). Build the application file: programme of operations, three-year business plan, governance, AML/CFT, safeguarding and security policies. The authority then assesses the file and, once authorised, you can begin operating.

Yes — an EMI authorisation passports across the whole EEA (all 27 EU states plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein).

The ACPR, an independent administrative authority attached to the Banque de France, licenses and supervises payment institutions, EMIs, credit institutions and finance companies; the Banque de France issues an opinion on the security of means of payment before any payment-services licence is granted.

Payment institutions and EMIs must obtain an ACPR licence under the Code monétaire et financier (initial capital typically €20k–€350k depending on services); Article L.522-11-1 provides a simplified PI licence for firms whose monthly average payment volume does not exceed €3 million and that do not offer money remittance.

PSD2 was transposed into French law by Ordonnance n° 2017-1252 (Dec 2017); the ACPR supervises AISPs and PISPs, banks must expose dedicated PSD2 interfaces, and most French banks use the STET API standard alongside the Berlin Group NextGenPSD2 framework. Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) under the PSD2 RTS has been mandatory for remote card payments in the EEA since 15 May 2021.

Retail instant payments in France run on the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer scheme via clearing house STET; EU Regulation 2024/886 (Instant Payments Regulation) obliges euro-area PSPs to receive SCT Inst from 9 January 2025 and to send SCT Inst from 9 October 2025, with charges no higher than standard SCT and mandatory verification of payee (IBAN/name check).

Ordonnance of September 2025 transposes EU Directive 2023/2225 (revised Consumer Credit Directive) into French law with application from 20 November 2026, extending consumer-credit rules (creditworthiness checks, disclosures, right of withdrawal) to mini-loans, short-term credit under three months and instalment products up to €100,000 — closing the historical BNPL carve-out.

Beyond the payments perimeter, the AMF (with ACPR opinion) handles crypto-asset service providers: the French PSAN regime is being replaced by the EU MiCA CASP authorisation, with the transitional period for existing PSANs to obtain CASP status expiring on 1 July 2026, aligning fintechs offering fiat-plus-crypto products with the ACPR PI/EMI licence.