In the Press

“Scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated. This duty of vigilance requires banks to monitor anything abnormal in light of the usual operation of their clients' bank accounts.”

“Since late 2025, a series of rulings by the Commercial Chamber has considerably tightened the criteria used to determine whether disputed transactions were abnormal and whether the bank should have alerted the payment services user. These recent decisions are, it is true, very harsh on users. But the fight is far from lost: a 2017 European regulation requires payment service providers to put transaction-monitoring mechanisms in place.”

“Banks have turned refusing reimbursement into a business model. The solution advocated by the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union would put an end to it. When you lose 500 or 700 euros, seeing a lawyer, starting proceedings, waiting 18 months for them to unfold and accepting the possible risk of losing obviously deters you from acting.”

The bank can be held liable “if it executed, without reacting, an order showing obvious anomalies pointing to possible fraud”.

“Banks nonetheless have a legal duty of vigilance and must verify identity. If banks could cross-check documents with one another, this would not happen, but it is impossible because of data protection law. Here, despite an obvious forgery, BNP refuses to return the sums unduly paid by my client.”

“Other similar loan offers from competing banks warn borrowers very clearly about exchange-rate risk — wording that has the drawback of being less of a selling point.”