"Starting in November 2026, France will bring in new, stricter rules to regulate loans and overdrafts. The goal is to reduce 'over-indebtedness' ( surendettement) and to improve consumer protection, as well as bringing France in line with a European directive from 2023. As of September 2025, over a third of French people (36 percent) reported they had overdrawn their bank account at least once in the last 12 months."
"The first type is a facilité de caisse, which is basically an emergency allowance giving people the ability to overdraw their accounts (up to a limit) for part or half of the month, as long as their balance becomes positive again for the remainder of the month. The second type is the découvert bancaire, which is when your account is officially in the red (beyond the limits of the facilité de caisse)."
Starting November 2026, France will enforce stricter regulations on loans and overdrafts to reduce over-indebtedness, strengthen consumer protection and align with a 2023 European directive. As of September 2025, 36 percent of French people reported overdrawing their bank account at least once in the prior 12 months, and eight percent said they overdraw monthly. There is currently no legal right to an overdraft; banks decide whether to authorise them. Two common forms exist: the facilité de caisse, an emergency short-term allowance, and the découvert bancaire, which is an official account overdraft. Banks charge proportional overdraft fees and a flat commission d'intervention that the government caps, with lower caps for special schemes and vulnerable customers.
Read at The Local France
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