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Country Finance - Main report: August 1st 2010 |

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Banks and other financial institutions: Bank regulators

In January 2010 a government ordinance created a new single regulator for the financial-services and insurance industries, the Prudential Control Authority (Autorité de contrôle prudential—ACP). The ACP, which operates with the resources of the Bank of France but remains independent, was officially established in March 2010, through the merger of the four former sector regulators (two in each sector for licensing and ongoing supervision). The ACP issues licences to financial-services firms, replacing the Comité des Etablissements de Crédit et des Entreprises d’Investissement (CECEI), and to insurance firms, replacing the Comité des Entreprises d’Assurance (CEA). The ACP is also responsible for the ongoing supervision of both financial services, replacing the Commission Bancaire, and the insurance sector, in place of the Autorité de Contrôle des Assurances et des Mutuelles (ACAM).

The ACP is composed of a 16-member board (collège), presided over by the chairman of the Bank of France and a five-member Sanctions Committee (Commission des sanctions). This partially replicates the structure of the stockmarket regulator, the Financial Markets Authority (Autorité des marchés financiers—AMF) with its 16-member board and 12-member Sanctions Committee.

General issues pertaining to the financial and insurance sectors are reviewed by the full board of the ACP. Individual questions can be dealt with by an eight-member core, by sub-boards specialised in banking or insurance, or by ad hoc commissions.

The Sanctions Committee has the exclusive power to impose penalties for transgressions by financial or insurance firms, but the sanctions procedure can only be initiated by the ACP board, which can also appeal against the Sanctions Committee’s rulings by referring them to the...