Banque de France

The Bank of France (French: Banque de France [bɑ̃k də fʁɑ̃s]) is the national central bank for France within the Eurosystem. It was the French central bank between 1800 and 1998, issuing the French franc. [3]

The Bank of France was originally established by Napoleon Bonaparte as a private-sector corporation with unique public status. It was granted note-issuance monopoly in Paris in 1803 and in the entire country in 1848. Long independent from direct political interference, it was brought under government control in 1936 and eventually nationalized in 1945. While other banks of issue were established in the French colonial empire, the Bank of France remained Metropolitan France's sole monetary authority until France's adoption of the euro as its currency. As of 2025, its balance sheet total was $1.818 trillion, making it the 5th largest central bank in the world. [3]

The Bank of France long held high prestige as an anchor of financial stability, especially before the monetary turmoil that followed World War I. In 1907, Italian economist and statesman Luigi Luzzatti referred to the Bank of France as "the centre of the world's monetary power." [3]

The French framework for banking supervision was initiated by the Vichy Government in 1941 and entrusted from the start to a separate body under the aegis of the Bank of France, which in 2013 became the Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority (French acronym ACPR). In 2017 the ACPR lost its prior status as an independent administrative authority under French law, but retains a distinct governance framework that also involves the French government. The Bank of France is not itself a financial supervisory authority, but oversees payment systems and participates in European banking supervision as a member of the Supervisory Board of the European Central Bank alongside the ACPR. It is also a member of the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB). [3]

Selected introductory text by Wikipedia contributors — Bank of France, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Official facts are cited separately.

1. 1800-01-18

   Establishment date in the institutional background record. [2]

Links retain their source-specific meaning. Award-time affiliations and links to related reading are not claims about current appointments or economic causation.

1. Reference source ↗
2. Wikidata background facts (CC0) ↗
3. Wikipedia contributors — Bank of France (CC BY-SA 4.0) ↗

Reviewed 23 October 2026. Historical dates and award-time affiliations retain their original context. A review date is not an event date. Background sources are identified separately from official records.