FRANCE Law and Practice Contributed by: Hubert de Vauplane and Hugo Bordet, Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP
crowdfunding and crowdlending platforms, robo-advisers, insurtechs, factoring and short- term financing providers, payroll processors, coin and NFT issuers, cryptocurrency exchang - es, hardware wallet makers, etc. Legacy players have understood the need to co-operate with these challengers in order to modernise and digitalise their business models and adapt to consumers who are increasingly using mobile banking services and other pay - ment innovations. Many French financial institu - tions have created their own fintech or insurtech incubators, such as L’Atelier by BNP Paribas, Le Village by Crédit Agricole, Kamet by AXA, Truffle FinTech Incubator by Truffle Capital, and Swave by a consortium of financial institutions includ - ing Société Générale, New Alpha Asset Manage - ment and AG2R La Mondiale. Legacy players are also investing in some of the most success - ful French fintech companies (eg, Qonto, Shine, Compte Nickel, Crédit.fr, KissKissBankBank, The regulatory regime applicable to fintech com - panies depends exclusively on their business model. As soon as an entity provides a regu - lated service, such entity must comply with a specific set of rules. Whether such entity is a newly created start-up or a century-old finan - cial institution, the applicable rules remain the same (even though the French regulators gener - ally use a proportional approach when enforcing these rules). Even the PACTE Act and the MiCAR order (which transposed MiCAR into French law from 30 December 2024), which created an ad hoc regime for ICOs and DASPs, do not apply exclusively to fintech companies, as any large financial institution is allowed to provide services related to crypto-assets. Budget Insight and Treezor). 2.2 Regulatory Regime
The specific regulatory regimes applicable to the fintech-related businesses mentioned in 2.1 Predominant Business Models may be broadly presented as follows (although other regulatory regimes may apply depending on the particulari - ties of each business model): • mobile payment apps are regulated as pay - ment service providers; • crowdfunding and crowdlending platforms are regulated as crowdfunding service providers. Since 10 November 2023, the French regime applicable to crowdfunding service providers has therefore been withdrawn to be replaced entirely by the European regime after a long transitional period; • group gifting/personal fundraising apps are regulated as payment service providers and/ or crowdfunding service providers; • bank account aggregators and personal finance apps are regulated as account infor - mation service providers and, where applica - ble, as payment service providers; • neobanks are regulated as credit institutions or electronic money institutions; • robo-advisers are regulated as investment service providers (ISPs) or as investment advisers, if the services provided qualify as investment advice; • insurtechs are regulated as insurance under - takings or insurance intermediaries; • payroll processors are normally unregulated, as they merely provide software and do not handle funds themselves; and • DASPs are subject to the French regulatory regime created by the PACTE Act and are required to register with the AMF and comply with AML legislation if they are established in France or provide services in France. (DASPs may also choose to apply for an optional licence which grants additional rights. DASPs may also be regulated as payment service
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