The central bank of France is the Banque de France, which itself is linked to the European Central Bank (ECB). Headquartered in Paris, the bank’s primary responsibility is to control the interest rate policy of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). As a result of the Banking Act of 1984, the main regulatory authority for the entre banking sector is the Commission Bancaire, which is presided over by the governor of the central bank.

As mentioned above, former French President Mitterrand nationalized nearly 40 private banks in the early 1980s, bringing the state’s control of all deposited funds to an enormous 90%. Among the leading banks nationalized at that time were the Crédit Commercial de France, the Crédit Lyonnais, the Société Générale, the Banque Nationale pour le Commerce et l'Industrie, and the Comptoir National d'Escompte de Paris [with Banque Nationale and Comptoir merging in 1966 to form the current giant Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP)].

Both Crédit Commercial de France and Société Générale were privatized by the Chirac government in 1987, and BNP recently won a takeover bid for several other entities, winning Paribas outright and gaining control of 36.8% of the shares of Société Générale. Although in need of updating, major surveys done in the early 2000s by the International Monetary Fund reported that currency and demand deposits in France (referred to in aggregate as M1) equaled $300.4 billion, with savings deposits, small time deposits, and money market mutual funds (collective referred to as M2) exceeding $896.5 billion.

One final aspect of France’s financial services industry that deserves exploration is the fact that the nation’s postal service (La Poste) not only offers financial services through La Banque Postale, but holds over 10% of the banking marketplace. Launching its banking services in 2006, La Banque Postale’s stated mission was to provide 24/7 services to all parts of the country, both urban and rural, via post office locations throughout the nation. In 2007, La Banque Postal’s internet portal logged nearly 108 million visitors. Part of the postal bank’s popularity is that it, indeed, has a branch network that is larger than that of all other French banks combined. La Banque Postal also tends to offer its customers the cheapest financial service rates, and (along with the bank Caisse d’Epargne) has exclusive rights to a popular savings scheme known as Livret A. La Banque Postal also offers the unique benefit of being open on Saturday mornings, which does not tend to be the case with the other banks. On the less attractive side, La Banque is not entitled (by law) to offer unsecured loans, and the amount of money customers can withdraw without prior notice is generally lower compared to other major banks. La Banque Postal’s international money transfer system also lags behind, with transfers inside the EU being much more expensive than transfer services offered by high street banks.