The Banque de France has launched a single telephone number and a communication campaign to make financially vulnerable people better aware of the skills it can provide them "to help them", at a time when inflation is putting pressure on the budget of households.

The 34.14, which replaces the approximately 200 existing telephone numbers, aims to "offer more readability and simplicity in reaching our services, and efficiency in handling questions from the public", specifies the French central bank, which receives more than a million calls each year.

To publicize this new number, in place since the end of October at the cost of a local call (not surcharged), the institution is launching an advertising campaign with an explicit catchphrase: the advisers are “there to help you”.

"The people who come to us are individuals who encounter a banking problem", recalls the Director of Individuals of the Banque de France, Mark Béguery, either "to have a bank account and means of payment", either “because they are on file for payment incidents”, or because they “cannot manage to meet their debts”.


🆕 More readable, simpler, more efficient: 3414 is the unique number to reach the Banque de France.


📞 Our advisors answer 1.2 million calls a year to inform and support individuals and businesses.


Learn more ⤵️

— Bank of France (@banquedefrance) November 22, 2022

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40% of calls concern over-indebtedness

The new single telephone number, accessible Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., is in addition to the other channels available to contact the Banque de France: at counters throughout France, by post or on its website .

A "good thing" for the union representative of the CGT Banque de France Hugo Coldeboeuf, if it does not result in a deterioration in the efficiency of the public service.

"In fact, you have fewer and fewer specific answers to your question", he laments, since the "standardization" of calls implies a "distance" between the person who takes the call and the file manager. .

With the persistence of inflation in France (6.2% over one year in October, according to INSEE), the Banque de France wants to be very vigilant with regard to over-indebtedness.

Nearly 40% of incoming calls relate to this subject.

The institution does not see any increase in the number of filings of over-indebtedness files.

The total in 2022 should be around 115,000, less than in 2021 (about 121,000).

Optical illusion

But trade unions and associations denounce a false observation because the Banque de France is becoming rarer in the regions, with the number of permanent counters halved since 2010 (i.e. more than 200 in 2010 against 105 today) and therefore less recorded files.

The difference has only been partially replaced by around sixty reception and information offices, with more restricted opening days and hours.

The Banque de France is also trying in eight departments to join the France services network, places that bring together several public services (taxes, post, employment center, etc.).



In October, the French Association of Financial Companies (ASF) warned of the ability of individuals to repay their consumer loans, also up 9.2% over one year in the third quarter.

“For about two weeks, we have started to have a clear increase in the number of referrals to associations”, explains the lawyer of the Crésus Pauline Dujardin federation, which brings together associations fighting against over-indebtedness.

She also points out that there may be a delay between the time when the difficulties appear and when people ask for help, resulting in a delay effect in the figures published.

“We hear everything the social workers tell us (…) and their concern for certain households about the impact of the rise in the price of energy and food in the months to come”, notes Mark Béguery.

However, "there are difficulties that do not translate into banking problems," he says.

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  • Bank of France

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