Section 2: Prohibitions

Any person other than a credit institution or finance company is prohibited from carrying out credit transactions on a regular basis. It is also prohibited for any person other than a credit institution to receive repayable funds from the public on a regular basis or to provide payment banking services.

Without prejudice to the specific provisions applicable to them, the prohibitions defined in Article L. 511-5 do not apply to the institutions and services listed in Article L. 518-1, nor to undertakings governed by the Insurance Code, nor to reinsurance companies, nor to provident institutions governed by Title III of Book IX of the Social Security Code, nor to approved bodies subject to the provisions of Book II of the…

I. – The prohibitions defined in article L. 511-5 do not prevent a company, whatever its nature, from : 1. In the course of its business, grant its contractors payment deadlines or advances; 2. Enter into contracts for the lease of residential property with an option to purchase; 3. Carry out treasury transactions with companies that have direct or indirect capital links with it, giving one of the affiliated companies…

It is prohibited for any undertaking other than a credit institution or finance company to use a name, company name, advertising or, in general, expressions that lead to the belief that it is authorised as a credit institution or finance company respectively, or to create confusion in this respect. A credit institution or finance company may not imply that it belongs to a category other than that for which it…

I. – Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary, any credit or financial institution referred to in Article L. 511-22 or Article L. 511-23 may, when carrying on business in France, use the same name as that which it uses in its home Member State. However, where this name is likely to give the impression that the establishment may provide services other than those for which it benefits from the freedom…

Any credit institution operating on the markets for financial futures instruments whose underlying asset is, in whole or in part, an agricultural commodity is prohibited from building up physical stocks of agricultural commodities with the aim of exerting a significant effect on the price of these agricultural commodity markets.