French Interior Minister Alerts Finance Chief to Banks Closing Muslim Accounts

In this correspondence, Gérald Darmanin mentions the "behavior repeatedly observed in certain banking institutions" consisting in closing the accounts of associations practicing the Muslim religion "without notice or explanation," reports the daily La Croix. He also said that a meeting had been organized in February with the French Banking Federation, during which it claimed that "the use of cash, non-traceable payment services or international financing could justify an internal alert and lead to the closure of an account without explanation."

"The only obligation is to send a substantiated suspicious declaration to Tracfin," the intelligence service responsible for the fight against tax fraud, money laundering and the financing of terrorism attached to Bruno Le Maire’s department, the minister specifies however. His wish, he will say, is that "the French Banking Federation, of which the Ministry of the Economy is the privileged interlocutor, be sensitized at the highest level to the need to accompany this approach of dialogue and improvement of transparency."

Even before the CMR denounced the "banking apartheid" of mosques, the Ministry of the Interior had already set up a working group that is looking into this issue within the Forum of Islam in France (Forif) launched in Paris on February 5, 2022. Solutions are therefore expected.