EMI licence in France — the ACPR application file

ACPR’s EMI authorisation is the gateway to one of the EU’s largest payments markets. The legal framework sits in the Code monétaire et financier (CMF), Articles L.526-1 and following, transposing EMD2 into French law. The competent authority is the Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution (ACPR), operating under the Banque de France. Statutory review is three months from a complete file; realistic end-to-end with feedback rounds is six-to-nine months for a well-prepared applicant. The French-language requirement is real, not nominal. This piece walks through what ACPR expects, where most first-pass drafts get held up, and how the regime sits alongside TRACFIN and the AMF.

1. Who grants and who supervises

ACPR is the competent authority for EMIs in France. It is administratively attached to the Banque de France but operationally independent. Prudential supervision sits with ACPR after grant; AML supervision is shared between ACPR (on the framework) and TRACFIN (on intelligence). Where the EMI offers investment services or distributes investment products, the AMF is involved alongside.

2. Legal basis

• Directive 2009/110/EC (EMD2) — the EU framework
• Code monétaire et financier (CMF), Articles L.526-1 to L.526-40 and following, on Établissements de Monnaie Électronique (EMEs)
• Ordonnance n° 2013-544 and Décret n° 2013-545 — the substantive French implementation
• ACPR’s specific authorisation notices and dossiers-type
• EBA Guidelines on authorisation under PSD2 and EMD2 — directly applicable

3. Who can apply

• A French-resident corporate vehicle (SA, SAS, SARL or equivalent), incorporated and substantively present in France
• Initial capital of at least €350,000, fully paid up, in own funds at grant
• Demonstrably fit-and-proper directors (dirigeants effectifs) and senior management
• A complete application file in French

Most applicants run a parallel corporate-incorporation track alongside the licensing file. The legal entity must exist and be properly capitalised at the moment of authorisation. ACPR is explicit that a “shell with intentions” does not satisfy the substance test.

4. What goes in the dossier

Core blocks of a complete EME dossier:

• Programme of operations (Programme d’activités) — products, customer journey, channels, geographies
• Business plan (Plan d’affaires) — three-year financial projections, capital, profitability, sensitivity to stress
• Governance map — dirigeants effectifs, key function holders, supervisory board where relevant, with fitness-and-properness (Honorabilité et Compétence) per individual
• Internal-control framework — risk, conformité, contrôle permanent, contrôle périodique
• ICT and operational-resilience framework — aligned with DORA from January 2025
• Safeguarding model (Cantonnement) — segregated account at a credit institution or insurance backing under Article L.526-32 CMF
• AML / CTF programme — risk assessment, policies, customer-due-diligence procedures, designated déclarant TRACFIN and correspondant TRACFIN — see our TRACFIN piece
• Outsourcing register with the Article 30 DORA clauses for ICT
• Conduct framework — complaint-handling procedure (réclamations), marketing-communications policy, fees and charges schedule
• Shareholder structure — direct and indirect, with fitness-and-properness on qualifying shareholders (Article L.522-9 CMF for PIs; equivalent for EMEs)

5. The French-language reality

The dossier is filed in French. ACPR is explicit on this. Three patterns sink first attempts at translation alone:

• Cabinet-French — overly literal translations of governance documents from a parent’s English file. Reads as foreign and signals weak local presence.
• Technical terms not used in CMF — for example, using English “AML officer” rather than the CMF terms “déclarant” and “correspondant”.
• Lack of fluency in interactions — feedback-round discussions happen in French; the team needs at least one native speaker who can defend the file.

6. Own-funds calculation

EMD2 sets the €350,000 floor. Ongoing own funds must be the higher of the floor and the result of one of three methods (A, B or D in Article 5 EMD2). In French practice, Method D — proportional to outstanding e-money — is the most common starting point, with Method B applying where the EME also offers payment services unrelated to e-money issuance. ACPR scrutinises the chosen method in the dossier with worked examples under the projected business plan.

7. Honorabilité et Compétence

Each named dirigeant effectif and key function holder submits:

• CV with documented experience in regulated financial services or equivalent
• Bulletin n° 3 du casier judiciaire (criminal-record extract) from France and from each jurisdiction of residence in the past ten years
• Declaration of conflicts and other directorships
• Statement of honourability

ACPR may interview dirigeants effectifs before grant, particularly when the file is novel or the team is foreign. The interviews are in French.

8. Realistic timing

Statutory three-month review from a complete file. Realistic end-to-end with feedback rounds: six-to-nine months. Pre-application engagement with ACPR through the pôle Fintech-Innovation is strongly encouraged and accelerates the substantive review.

9. What switches on at grant

• SURFI — ACPR’s supervisory reporting framework
• TRACFIN AML reporting and the systematic declaration regime
• CESOP — once cross-border payment thresholds are met
• IPR statistical report — annual
• ACPR conduct and complaints reporting
• Passporting notifications to host member states

10. FAQ

11. What to do, today

• Engage ACPR’s pôle Fintech-Innovation before drafting begins; surface concerns early.
• Build the dossier in French from the start. Translation as an afterthought is visible.
• Name dirigeants effectifs early; criminal-record extracts take weeks to assemble for foreign residents.
• Build the ICT/DORA framework against the actual Article 28 register layout — it becomes a live submission after grant.
• Plan the post-grant reporting catalogue (SURFI, TRACFIN, CESOP, IPR, ACPR conduct) alongside the application.

Related: Where to base your EMI · TRACFIN — filing in France · EMI licence in Spain