FRANCE Law and Practice Contributed by: Damien Luqué, Martin Jarrige de la Sizeranne and Sacha Tartarin, Lacourte Raquin Tatar
duct banking activities in another EU member state, on the basis of the principles of freedom of establishment (ie, establishing a local branch) and/or freedom to provide services (ie, providing banking services to clients located in another EU member states on a cross-border basis). Such ability is subject to a notification process with the ACPR, which includes a form to be filled out containing information on the future branch and/ or the types of business contemplated in the rel - evant EU member state.
• the portion of the capital or voting rights of the credit institution which would be held by the acquirer(s) exceeds 10%, 20%, 33% or 50%; • the credit institution would become the sub - sidiary of the acquirer(s); or • the operation would give the acquirer(s) sig - nificant influence over the management of the credit institution. Authorisation Process The notification file must be sent to the ACPR, which will assess the acquisition project and then forward the draft decision to approve or reject the acquisition project to the ECB. The ECB will decide either to approve or reject the acquisition project based on the ACPR’s assess - ment. In particular, the ACPR verifies the soundness of the credit institution’s management, the appro - priateness of the potential acquirer and the financial strength of the acquisition project. This assessment is based on the following criteria: • the potential acquirer’s good reputation, which covers integrity and professional com - petence; • the ongoing compliance by the credit institu - tion’s conducing officers and members of the supervisory body with fit and proper require - ments, following the acquisition project; • the potential acquirer’s financial soundness, taking into account the credit institution’s activities; • the ongoing compliance with the applicable prudential requirements; and • the absence of suspicion or risk of money laundering or financing of terrorism.
3. Changes in Control 3.1 Requirements for Acquiring or Increasing Control Over a Bank Qualifying Holding
Any natural or legal person, acting individually or in concert, who plans to acquire a qualify - ing holding in a credit institution, either directly or indirectly, or to further increase their holding by crossing a relevant threshold, must notify the ACPR prior to the operation. A qualifying holding refers to a direct or indi - rect holding in a credit institution that represents 10% or more of the capital or of the voting rights of that credit institution or that allows for the exercise of significant influence over the man - agement of that credit institution. The Joint Committee of the European Supervis - ing Authorities established a non-exhaustive list of criteria that may be used to determine wheth - er acquiring a holding in a credit institution is expected to involve the exercise of significant influence (JC/GL/2016/01). Notification Thresholds The thresholds triggering the application of the notification requirement are as follows:
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