French National Asset Freeze Register
The public register kept by the French Treasury Directorate General that lists every asset freeze in force in France, whether it comes from a national decision, the EU or the UN Security Council.
The French National Asset Freeze Register is the public register, kept by the Treasury Directorate General, that lists every asset freeze in force in France, whether national, EU or UN in origin. The French legal basis for asset freezes sits in Articles L. 562-1 et seq. of the Monetary and Financial Code, rewritten by Ordinance No. 2020-1342 of November 4, 2020. Article L. 562-1 defines the freezing of funds and economic resources in terms almost identical to the EU regulations. The economy minister can order a national freeze, notably against people tied to terrorism who appear on no EU list. The same ordinance created the register, published at gels-avoirs.dgtresor.gouv.fr, which covers persons, entities and vessels. Overhauled in December 2020 and relaunched in March 2021, with 2,408 measures at that time, it can be read online, in JSON, in XML or through an API that screening tools plug into directly. Its legal weight depends on the source. For a Security Council designation, the measure becomes enforceable in France as soon as it is published in the register, without waiting for the EU to transpose it. For an EU freeze, the regulation in the Official Journal is authoritative; for a national freeze, the order published in extract in the Official Journal. Article L. 562-4 makes the freeze applicable without delay to any person, and an insurer is one: it freezes, withholds payment, reports to the Treasury. The ACPR (Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution) supervises how insurers apply the regime. For a compliance team, this register is the only source that carries purely French freezes, which the Commission's consolidated list ignores.
Textbook case: on a Tuesday, the register publishes a national freeze targeting a person suspected of financing a terrorist organization, who appears on no EU list. On Thursday, that person requests full surrender of a 45,000 euro life insurance contract taken out in 2019. The insurer's tool, fed by the register's API, raises the alert; the tool at a subsidiary that loaded only the Commission's consolidated list would have missed it. The surrender is not paid, the 45,000 euros stay in the contract, and the insurer reports the measure to the Treasury. The 1,200 euros of funeral costs for a relative that the policyholder then requests go out only if the Treasury grants a license.
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