Two French banks must reimburse clients unjustified fees

Two banks in France have been fined more than €9 million, and must reimburse clients for unfairly charged fees, and for being targeted by unjust commercial practices, the fraud office has reported.

La Caisse d'épargne Grand Est has been fined €3.2 million for having “exceeded the applicable limits on intervention fees”, while La Caisse d'épargne Île de France has been fined €6 million for the same issue, as well as “charging intervention fees in the absence of any operational irregularity”.

The banks – both of which are part of the BPCE group – received the penalties after an investigation carried out by the fraud and commercial practices office the DGCCRF between October 2022 and April 2025. The case was then referred to the public prosecutor’s office.

In its defence, la Caisse d'épargne Grand Est told TF1: “We have already stopped charging this fee…and will reimburse those customers concerned in the coming weeks.”

Too-complex rules

It comes after consumer association UFC-Que Choisir has previously warned that bank rules and charges are often too complex, and poorly understood by their clients. 

“Many charges are triggered automatically by computer settings and there are very long price lists, which also means that consumers are unable to keep track of what is being billed, what is normal and what is not normal,” said Juliette Woods, banking manager at UFC-Que Choisir.

Bank fees in France have long been controversial. Annual fees for having a French bank account rose by 5% in 2025, a consumer rights watchdog warned early last year, and late last year banks were restricted on the amount they can charge after the death of an account holder. 

Less than a month ago, clients of the Caisse d’Epargne, Banque Populaire, Boursorama and Crédit Coopératif received alerts indicating that some transactions were recorded incorrectly with duplicate payments, due to an IT bug.