Médiateur
If you have issues with your French bank and are not getting a satisfactory response you can try the mediator, who is a kind of ‘in-bank’ ombudsman.
If your bank has one, it should give you the name and contact details. Though in my experience they don’t like sharing the contact details!
If that doesn’t work, try the Federation Bancaire France
Fédération Française des Bancaires, 18 rue La Fayette, BP 151, 75422 Paris, Cedex 09
email: mediateur@fbf.fr.
FIN-NET
FIN-NET was launched in 2001 and provides a network for settling cross-border financial disputes within the EEC out of Court ie. disputes between consumers and financial service providers such as banks, insurance companies etc.
http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/fin-net/index_en.htm
If you have an issue with your French bank in relation to a mortgage on a French leaseback property this may be helpful in establishing your rights. In all of the people affected by this issue, the French banks have not been helpful and the language is a major barrier.
While banks such as Credit Agricole du Languedoc and BNP advertise mortgages for French leaseback properties in English, which are deliberately targeted at Irish and English consumers, they have remarkably little to say (especially in English!) when issues arise further down the line.
Credit Agricole for example had prominent link on these English language websites to property websites promoting and selling these ‘investment’ properties and offered mortgages on the back of the illusory ‘guaranteed’ rents.
Financial Ombudsman
Irish citizens should contact the Financial Services Ombudsman if a financial dispute arises with an institution in another EEC country.