Bank Succession Costs: Max €850 Limit

The costs applied by banks for operations on the account of a deceased cannot exceed 850 euros, according to A decree published Thursday August 14 at Official Journal After the voting of a law on the subject in May. This text had already prohibited banks to apply from November 13, 2025 costs – for example to close a booklet – if the deceased was a minor, if the total balance of the accounts was less than a certain threshold – for the moment set at 5,910 euros – or in the case of the simplest successions.

For more successions « complexes »for example when the deceased had a mortgage or had no designated heir, the law had authorized that costs were billed, but had set a first ceiling at 1 % of the amount of the sums held. The decree published Thursday the restricted even more: in all cases, the costs will not exceed 850 euros, including so if 1 % of the sums held exceeded this amount. This limit will be reassessed each year to follow inflation.

The Parliament had definitively adopted in May this law proposed by the deputy (Puy-de-Dôme, socialist party) Christine Pirès Beaune and supported by the government. This initiative notably followed the publicized case of parents having to pay 138 euros to close the booklet A of their 8 -year -old child who died in 2021.

After the vote of the law, the Minister Delegate to Trade and the Social and Solidarity Economy, Véronique Louwagie, had praised “An advance to protect families and ensure confidence in the banking system”. “In accordance with the absence must not be added excessive banking costs, often misunderstood and not very readable”she had added.

“Banks are and will remain alongside their customers, especially in the most difficult moments”reacted the French Banking Federation (FBF) in a declaration sent to the France-Presse agency. “The banking profession takes note of published texts while regretting the implementation of an administered pricing which denies the reality of the work accomplished”estimates the FBF.