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A future Monegasque right to a banking account?

As a corollary of the phenomenon of the dematerialization of way of payments and monetary exchanges, the banking account has become a personal and professional crucial need. Yet, it appears that the number of account opening’s refusals is clearly increasing in the Principality of Monaco.

To avoid the unsatisfactory consequences of this acknowledgment, a draft Bill n°232 was tabled in public session on October 3rd. This draft Bill introduce a right to open an account in Monaco on the basis (with some major differences) of what is envisaged by article L 312-1 of the French Monetary and Financial Code.

More precisely, this Bill confers a right to open a personal or professional bank account in the books of a chosen Monegasque credit institution with around ten basic banking services. This right is reserved, however, to person justifying of a certain connection with the Principality (domicile or nationality).

As outlined in this Bill, the right to open an account is not absolute.

The 13 authors behind this text gave the credit institution a right of refusal in the following cases:

  • where the applicant has committed certain offenses listed in the draft Bill,
  • where the applicant already has a bank account in a Monegasque credit institution and,
  • where it is impossible to verify the identity of the client or of the beneficial economic beneficiaries in accordance with Law 1.362 and Ordinance 2.318 of 3 August 2009.

The proposed text thus protects the legal binding obligations of all Monegasque credit institutions and the right of Monegasque citizens and residents to open an account in order to collect their personnal and professional incomes.

However, before this draft Bill becomes enforceable a long legislative journey will await this draft Bill.

Once adopted by the National Council, the Minister of State, if he wishes to transform this draft Bill into a “project of Bill”, will dispose of, at most, one and a half year to forward the “project of Bill” to the National Council. The draft Bill, which has now become a Project of Bill, will then again be put to the vote of the Council. As a consequence, the effectiveness of the right to the Monegasque account seems difficult to picture before 2019.

Authors

Portrait ofOlivier Marquet
Olivier Marquet
Managing Partner
Monaco