Section 3: Housing finance companies

Housing finance companies are specialised credit institutions whose sole purpose is to grant or finance housing loans and to hold securities, exposures and deposits under conditions defined by decree in the Conseil d’Etat. These companies are governed by Articles L. 513-3, L. 513-5 and L. 513-7 to L. 513-26-1 , subject to the provisions of this section.

I. – To achieve their purpose, housing finance companies may: 1° Grant loans to any credit institution guaranteed by the remittance, assignment or pledging of the receivables referred to in II, in accordance with the provisions of articles L. 211-36 to L. 211-40 or articles L. 313-23 to L. 313-35, whether or not these receivables are professional in nature; 2° Acquire promissory notes issued by any credit institution under the…

I. – To finance the operations referred to in Article L. 513-29, housing finance companies may issue bonds called housing finance bonds benefiting from the privilege defined in Article L. 513-11 and raise other resources whose contract or document intended for public information provided for in Regulation (EU) No 2017/1129 of 14 June 2017 or any equivalent document required for admission to foreign regulated markets mentions this privilege. Ia –…

Article L. 632-2 of the French Commercial Code does not apply to contracts entered into by a housing finance company or to legal acts performed by or for the benefit of a housing finance company where such contracts or acts directly relate to the transactions provided for in Articles L. 513-28 to L. 513-30 of this Code.

In each housing finance company, the specific controller referred to in Article L. 513-23 ensures that the company complies with Articles L. 513-28 to L. 513-30. It also verifies that the housing loans granted or financed by the housing finance company comply with the purpose defined in Article L. 513-28 and meet the conditions set out in Articles L. 513-29 and L. 513-30. In addition, for housing finance bonds for…

The detailed rules for the application of this section shall be defined by decree in the Conseil d’Etat.