2. Which French Bank?
- French High Street Banks
- International/Offshore Banking
- Internet Banks
- Conclusion: Which Bank?
2.3. Internet Banks in France
There are a growing number of exclusively on-line banks in France, and within the last few years they have become a strong alternative to the traditional High Street branch.
In reality, however, many of them are off-shoots of the main banks!
Between them, the on-line banks in France now have around 3 million customers.
The most notable of these banks are:
On 23rd Dec 2021 the large ING internet bank announced it was closing operations in France and was to be sold.
Other banks are affiliated to the main retail banks or to insurance companies.
Thus, Boursorama is part of Societé Générale, BRED part of Banque Populaire, Filbanque part of CIC and Hello Bank part of BNP Paribas. EKO Banque is operated by Crédit Agricole. Ma French Bank is the on-line bank of La Banque Postale.
Axa and AGF are both insurance companies. In 2016, the French telecoms giant Orange acquired a 65% stake in another insurance company, Groupama, which in January 2017 became 'Orange Bank', one being designed exclusively for mobile phone usage. In 2021 Groupama pulled out and in June 2023, Orange stated that as a result of continuing substantial losses, the bank was being sold to BNP Paribas.
None of them are all entirely internet only banks, in the sense that some do have a presence on the high street. However, the services offered by the branch network are very limited, so you need to ensure you know what you want from your bank. If you are using the bank to deposit cash on a regular basis, then you are probably going to need a branch network.
As all the main retail banks now have internet access available to their clients you will need to be satisfied that you are getting something from an internet bank that you cannot get from the high street.
The charges imposed by these banks are generally lower than those of the main retail banks, with many offering free banking.
In addition, their rates of interest on savings accounts are generally higher than those of the retail banks.
Nevertheless, the margin of difference on savings is usually very small and in recent years no bank has been able to offer particularly attractive permanent savings rates.
In order to try and hook new customers the internet banks regularly do promotions that offer a high rate of interest on savings accounts. However, there are all sorts of conditions attached to these offers, and the period of validity of the headline rate is restricted to three to six months.
The advertised rate will also be the gross rate, before deduction of tax and social charges. As a general rule of thumb, residents of France should expect to have to pay one third of all interest earned in tax and social charges.
As we indicated in an earlier page, one of the most interesting offers around on the market is the Multi-Currency Account from Wise (formerly Transferwise), who offer a multi-currency account with a Mastercard, for which there is no annual charge. The company do not offer loans or overdrafts, but it is easy to open an account with them without the need for an address in France, and their charges are very reasonable.
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