France

Supervision is split by sector. The ACPR supervises banks, payment and e-money institutions, insurers and most crypto-asset service providers, the AMF covers crypto providers authorised only for advice or portfolio management, and the ANJ supervises online and exclusive-rights gambling operators. Suspicious transaction reports go to Tracfin, the financial intelligence unit, and the Direction générale du Trésor publishes the national asset-freeze register.

Yes. Obliged entities verify identity either with an electronic identification means at the eIDAS substantial or high level, or by combining at least two listed measures, such as an ANSSI-certified remote identity verification service and a first payment from the customer's own bank account. A video call does not count as meeting the customer in person, and a document copy alone is never enough. Online gambling follows its own player-account rules.

Before the transaction is carried out, so that Tracfin can oppose it, and with no minimum amount. Reports are filed through the ERMES platform. In payments, money remittances funded by cash or e-money are also reported systematically from €1,000 per operation or €2,000 per customer per month, and since May 2026 banks must record accounts they suspect of fraud in a national file kept by the Banque de France.

Generally, yes. The CNIL considers that, unless a legal text requires or expressly authorises biometrics, they rest on explicit consent and cannot be imposed without an alternative. French AML rules do not require face matching, so an eIDAS digital identity or two non-biometric measures can serve as that alternative. Large-scale biometric processing needs a data protection impact assessment, and templates should preferably stay on the user's device.

Telecom operators, healthcare providers, hotels and travel sellers, public administrations and most online shops and marketplaces are not on the list of obliged entities in the Code monétaire et financier. Their identity duties come from sector law instead, such as subscriber identity rules, the National Health Identity, police forms for foreign guests and DSA seller checks. Currency exchange bureaus and sellers of art, jewellery or high-value goods remain covered.