FRANCE Trends and Developments Contributed by: Samuel Sauphanor, Alexandra Szekely, Timothée de Saint Viance and Benoit Barré, Le 16 Law
International Co-operation France actively participates in transnational investigations and intelligence sharing through Europol, Eurojust and Interpol. The country has also signed numerous bilateral treaties and mutual legal assistance agreements (MLATs) to support the prosecution and enforce - ment of international fraud cases and facilitate asset recovery. Public-Private Collaboration Partnerships between the public and private sec - tors have become instrumental. Financial institu - tions, for instance, collaborate closely with the TRACFIN, while regulatory authorities impose robust KYC due diligence and anti-money laun - dering protocols on banks and digital service providers to identify suspicious activity early. The Growing Importance of Asset Tracing In today’s interconnected financial system, trac - ing and recovering stolen assets has become a priority and a challenge. Fraudulent schemes, from corporate embezzlement to cyber scams and public corruption, are increasingly trans - national. Once illicit funds are stolen, they are often swiftly moved through international wire transfers, offshore accounts, shell companies or cryptocurrency wallets, making them difficult to trace and recover. Effective asset tracing plays a dual role. It enhances the likelihood of fund recovery and acts as a deterrent to future crimes. The global movement of illicit funds often involves layer - ing techniques such as routing through multi - ple banks, using countries with strict banking secrecy laws and deploying complex corporate structures.
regulated entities; operators of essential servic - es (OSEs) and digital service providers (FSNs). However, the 2018 transposition law excluded entities already subject to cybersecurity obliga - tions considered equivalent, most notably, OIVs from its scope. Obligations imposed on OSEs, although similar in structure to those applica - ble to OIVs are nevertheless more flexible and adapted to the EU framework. DSPs are subject to an even lighter regime, under ex post supervision by the ANSSI. The transposition of NIS2 into French law was delayed due to the dissolution of one of the two legislative chambers in 2024 and the transposi - tion law and secondary legislation are yet to be adopted. The implementation of NIS2 will mark a new stage in strengthening and broadening the scope of cyber-regulation in France. Follow - ing transposition, the number of regulated enti - ties in France is set to rise from approximately 600 entities under NIS1 to approximately 15,000 under NIS2. The transposition bill provides that OIVs can be classified as essential entities under NIS2, making both frameworks cumulatively applica - ble to the entities concerned. Unlike OIVs, other NIS2 entities will be designated based on self- assessment in light of objective criteria (sector and size). The French OIV regime remains more rigorous in practice, but the implementation of NIS2 will narrow the gap by significantly expand - ing and detailing cybersecurity obligations for NIS2 in many critical sectors, some of which are particularly prone to fraud (such as bank - ing and financial market infrastructure, digital infrastructure and digital providers or ICT ser - vice providers, including telecom providers pre - viously subject to cybersecurity requirements under Directive (EU) 2018/1872 (the “EECC” )).
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