Since May 7, 2026, a credit transfer sent from France goes through one more check. Before the payee’s account is credited, the payer’s bank must query a new database run by the Banque de France, France’s central bank: the national register of accounts flagged for fraud risk, known by its French acronym FNC-RF. Its purpose is narrow and pointed. It lists IBANs already identified as fraudulent so that no transfer goes out to them.
The register responds to a shift Paypedia has tracked for months: fraud is moving from cards to credit transfers, which now account for 37% of fraud losses, more than any other payment method. According to the Banque de France’s payment security observatory (OSMP), manipulation fraud, which runs mostly through credit transfers, caused close to €245 million in losses in the first half of 2025 alone. That is nearly 40% of all payment fraud, even though transfers remain a minority of transactions by number.
The Labaronne law created the register
The FNC-RF stems from Law No. 2025-1058 of November 6, 2025, known as the Labaronne law, which was passed to step up the fight against fraud and is codified at Article L. 521-6-1 of the French Monetary and Financial Code. It puts the Banque de France in charge of a central registry, fed by the institutions that detect an account used to receive fraudulent funds. The law took effect six months after enactment, in early May 2026.
A match lets the bank slow, hold, or refuse a transfer
The check sits inside the transfer flow, out of the customer’s sight. When a payment order is entered, the sending bank compares the payee’s IBAN with the entries in the register. If it finds a match, it can:
- Slow down the transaction to allow time for checks
- Hold the transfer and alert the customer
- Refuse to execute it if it judges the risk to be established
The register is not a blacklist
The FNC-RF is not a list of banned IBANs. A flagged account can keep operating, and an alert is not a finding of guilt. The system has three blind spots that even its designers acknowledge:
- False positives: a legitimate IBAN flagged in error can see its incoming transfers slowed down
- Fast-moving fraudsters, who open new mule accounts faster than the old ones get reported
- Psychological manipulation: the register blocks a known IBAN, not a victim persuaded to send money to an account with no record yet
The FNC-RF and Verification of Payee cover different risks
The new register does not replace Verification of Payee (VoP), mandatory across the euro area since October 2025. VoP checks that the payee name entered matches the holder of the IBAN. The FNC-RF checks whether that IBAN has already been used for fraud. The first guards against mistakes and payee impersonation, the second against repeat offenders.
One question remains open. How well the register works will depend on the quality and speed of reporting, since it only catches what goes into it. The first months of operation will show whether the roughly 225 connected institutions report daily and rigorously. Without that, the FNC-RF will remain a net with holes too wide to matter.