Employment in Financial Services

First of all, various obligations discussed so far have the effect of forcing, if they were not already there, employees in the financial services sector to behave in an honourable manner and respect prudential rules.

In addition, Law 2016-1691 of 9 December 2016 on transparency, the fight against corruption and the modernisation of economic life states in article 17 that in certain large companies, managers must take all measures to prevent and detect the commission, in France or abroad, of acts of corruption or influence peddling.

This means setting up a code of conduct that will be integrated into the internal regulations, in compliance with the procedure for consulting employee representatives provided for in article L. 1321-4 of the French Labour Code.

This code of conduct involves the implementation of measures and procedures that will be monitored by the French Anti-Corruption Agency. In particular, the code of conduct must define and provide examples of the various types of behaviour to be prohibited as likely to constitute corruption or influence peddling. It must also establish an evaluation and control system, as well as a disciplinary system, enabling the company's employees to be sanctioned if there is a violation of the company's code of conduct.

In addition to this code of conduct, which is part of the internal regulations, almost all players in the financial services sector have put in place charters and policies to protect confidential information and regulate risky activities.

In principle, the relationship between companies and employees in the financial services sector is private. As such, companies do not have to communicate confidential information about their employees to third parties, as this would constitute an infringement of their fundamental freedoms. However, in certain cases, employers must alert the competent authorities in the event of behaviour or "suspicions" of behaviour by one of their employees that is contrary to the law.

Thus, the Monetary and Financial Code provides that companies in the financial services sector, referred to in article L.561-2 of the code (the list of which was updated by Ordinance no. 2023-1139 of December 6, 2023 on credit managers and credit buyers to include "Credit managers"), must report to the national financial intelligence unit (Tracfin) all sums or transactions that they suspect to be the result of an offence punishable by a prison sentence of more than one year, or related to the financing of terrorism or tax evasion. This declaration may be made in respect of any employee of one of these companies.

In addition, when facts likely to constitute violations of the anticorruption code of conduct or to qualify as corruption or influence peddling are brought to the attention of the company and its managers, an internal investigation must be conducted (article 17 of Law No. 2016-1691 of 9 December 2016 on transparency). If the investigation confirms the suspicions, the employer must, on the one hand, sanction the employee, but also inform the prosecuting authority of the facts.

In smaller companies, the employer will also be able to report to the prosecution authorities any behaviour that could lead to criminal sanctions.