French Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing (LCB-FT)
LCB-FT (Lutte Contre le Blanchiment et le Financement du Terrorisme) is France's comprehensive legal and regulatory framework for preventing money laundering and terrorism financing. Transposing EU anti-money laundering directives, it imposes due diligence, suspicious transaction reporting, and data retention obligations on regulated professionals.
The French LCB-FT framework is primarily based on the Monetary and Financial Code (Articles L. 561-1 et seq.) and implementing regulations. It applies to a broad range of obliged entities: credit institutions, insurance companies, notaries, lawyers, chartered accountants, real estate agents, art dealers, crypto-asset platforms, and many others. Each obliged entity must establish an internal LCB-FT system proportionate to its risk profile.
Key obligations include: identifying and verifying the identity of customers and beneficial owners before entering into a business relationship; implementing ongoing due diligence measures (transaction monitoring, data updates); filing suspicious transaction reports (STRs) with Tracfin when suspicious activity is detected; and retaining supporting documents for five years after the end of the business relationship.
France strengthened its LCB-FT framework following the 2022 FATF mutual evaluation, which highlighted the need to improve supervision of non-financial professions. The ACPR (for the financial sector) and DGCCRF, professional orders, and federations (for non-financial professions) oversee compliance with these obligations. Penalties can be severe: administrative fines, prohibition from practising, and even criminal prosecution.
Regulations
Real-world examples
- 1.A real estate agent verifies the identity of both buyer and seller for a transaction exceeding EUR 15,000, collects proof of identity and proof of address, and retains these documents for five years after signing the deed.
- 2.A chartered accountant detects unusual financial flows in a client's accounts and files a suspicious transaction report with Tracfin without informing the client, in compliance with the non-disclosure obligation.
- 3.An online bank updates its LCB-FT risk assessment and reclassifies certain clients as high-risk due to links with politically exposed persons, triggering enhanced due diligence measures.