EMI licence in France — the ACPR application file

The EMI licence in France — granted by the ACPR — 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, two worked examples on capital and safeguarding, 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 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

5. The French-language reality

The dossier is filed in French. ACPR is explicit on this. Three patterns sink first attempts that rely on 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 the CMF — for example, writing “AML officer” instead of the CMF roles déclarant and correspondant.
• Lack of fluency in interactions — feedback-round discussions happen in French; the team needs at least one fluent 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 the applicable calculation method under EMD2 (with the PSD2 methods A, B or C applying to any payment services not linked to e-money issuance). In French practice, the e-money method — own funds proportional to outstanding e-money — is the usual starting point, with a payment-services method layered on where the EME also provides unrelated payment services. ACPR scrutinises the chosen method in the dossier and expects worked calculations under the projected business plan.

7. Two worked examples

Example A — prepaid wallet with growing float.

Facts: a French EME applicant projects a consumer e-money wallet reaching a substantial average outstanding e-money float by year three, with no other payment services.

What the rule says: ongoing own funds are the higher of the €350,000 floor and the e-money own-funds requirement, which scales with the outstanding float. At a small float the floor binds; as the float grows, the proportional requirement overtakes it.

What the practitioner does: presents both numbers for each projection year in the capital plan, identifies the crossover year, and shows committed funding to cover the requirement beyond it. A capital plan that stops at “€350,000 paid up” for a growth business is a guaranteed feedback-round question.

Example B — safeguarding design for a fintech-bank stack.

Facts: the applicant intends to hold customer e-money funds via an account with a credit institution, with a technology partner operating the ledger.

What the rule says: Article L.526-32 CMF requires cantonnement — customer funds segregated in a dedicated account at a credit institution, or covered by an insurance policy or comparable guarantee. The funds must be identifiable and protected from the EME’s other creditors.

What the practitioner does: documents the full chain — which account, at which type of institution, reconciled how often, and who has accountability for each step — in the safeguarding section and mirrors it in the outsourcing register. ACPR does not accept “we use a partner bank” as a description; it expects the contract, the account structure and the reconciliation control named and evidenced.

8. 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.

9. Realistic timing

Statutory three-month review from a complete file — but completeness is assessed by ACPR, and each substantive information request effectively resets the practical clock. 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.

10. 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

FAQ

What to do, today

• CEO: engage ACPR’s pôle Fintech-Innovation before drafting begins; surface structural concerns early.
• Head of Legal: build the dossier in French from the start, against the dossier-type. Translation as an afterthought is visible.
• HR / Company Secretary: name dirigeants effectifs early; criminal-record extracts take weeks to assemble for foreign residents.
• CTO: build the ICT/DORA framework against the actual register layout — it becomes a live submission after grant.
• CFO / MLRO: plan the post-grant reporting catalogue (SURFI, TRACFIN, CESOP, IPR, ACPR conduct) alongside the application, and put worked own-funds numbers in the capital plan.

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