Millions of bank accounts will be deleted by the end of 2024: is your money in danger ?

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The year 2024 is shaping up to be a major turning point for the French banking landscape with the disappearance of three leading financial institutions: HSBC France, Orange Bank and Ma French Bank. These closures are a major disruption for millions of customers who will have to navigate a transition process to find a new institution to deposit their assets.

Name change

The French branch of the HSBC group has already ceased its activities since January 1, 2024, after being acquired by My Money Group. This change resulted in the deletion of 800,000 bank accounts with customers being transferred to Crédit Commercial de France.

CCF is the old, very famous brand of HSBC in France, so it’s a return to the origins. This transfer implies that customers had to obtain a new IBAN and a new bank card – although advisors and agencies remained in place to facilitate this transition.

Orange Bank, which had no less than 1.8 million accounts, is also closing its doors. Customers are encouraged to migrate to Hello bank!, another online bank operated by BNP Paribas, which offers financial incentives of up to several hundred euros to facilitate this transition.

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This closure is the result of Orange's inability to establish a profitable position in the banking market with losses exceeding one billion euros.

Similarly, Ma French Bank (La Banque Postale group) which accumulated 255 million euros in losses between 2018 and 2022, will end its activities this year and this will affect 700 ;nbsp;000 customers.

Although no precise closure date has yet been confirmed, discussions are underway for customers to be transferred to La Banque Postale, which could also offer alternatives.

The trouble begins

The consequences of these closures are complicated for the customers concerned. In addition to losing access to their bank accounts, they will also have to change their bank details, which will have an impact on daily life. HSBC France customers, for example, had to adapt to new identifiers and a new online customer area.

Similarly, those at Orange Bank will have to make active choices regarding their future establishment: they are not obliged to go to Hello bank!. In 2022, ING France had already decided to withdraw from the market and had encouraged its clients to migrate to BoursoBank (formerly Boursorama Banque), now the leader in the online banking segment.

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