French bank clients hit by double debits after computer bug

Thousands of French bank customers across several major banking chains have seen duplicate payments appear on their accounts in error, following a technical problem traced to a third party subsidiary.

Since January 27, clients of the Caisse d’Epargne, Banque Populaire, Boursorama and Crédit Coopératif have received alerts indicating that some transactions were recorded incorrectly. 

Those affected receive messages in their banking app warning that:

“Suite à un incident d'un établissement confrère, certains paiements par carte bancaire peuvent apparaître à tort sur votre compte depuis le 27/01/2026” 

(Following an incident at a partner establishment, certain debit card payments may have been incorrectly charged to your account since 27/01/2026). 

Customers are advised not to contest the debits.

The bug sees previous transactions being posted again mistakenly, affected banks have confirmed.

It is affecting a large number of accounts - widely reported by French media to be in the thousands - but banks have so far declined to provide precise figures. 

Caisse d’Epargne says that “all measures are being taken to cancel duplicate transactions and restore accounts as quickly as possible.”

Banque Populaire, which is part of the BPCE group alongside Caisse d’Epargne and Crédit Coopératif, reports similar errors. 

It says that the relevant transactions would be reversed automatically to ensure customers’ accounts are restored promptly.

Boursorama and Crédit Coopératif also say they were affected, though they provided few additional details.

The banks stress that no action is required from customers to resolve the issue. 

Reports on French news website Actu.fr indicate that the fault involved Monext, a Crédit Mutuel Arkéa subsidiary.