The Financial Prosecutor of France, confirming information from the newspaper Le Monde, announced that investigations are being carried out at five banks in the Paris area that are suspected of tax evasion.
The so-called “CumCum” practice in financial jargon consists in avoiding the tax on dividends, which must be paid by foreign owners of shares in listed French companies.
In particular, equity holders trust their securities with a bank when the tax is collected, thereby avoiding taxation. The practice came to light in 2018 when 16 media outlets exposed it through the “CumEx Files”.
France: Which banks are targeted by the authorities
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Today’s investigations are being conducted, in the framework of European judicial cooperation, by 16 French judges and more than 150 investigators, in the presence of six German prosecutors.
Societe Generale, BNP Paribas, Exane (a subsidiary of BNP), Natixis and HSBC are targeted, according to Le Monde.
