ORIAS (France)

Definition

ORIAS is the body that keeps France's single register of intermediaries in insurance, banking and finance: insurance brokers and tied agents, mandated agents, credit intermediaries and financial investment advisers. Every insurance broker must be registered before doing business, under criminal penalty, and must renew the registration each year. Registration requires evidence of good repute, professional competence, professional indemnity insurance and, for brokers who handle client money, a financial guarantee. The ORIAS number must appear on the firm's documents and communications, and the register is public, so clients can check that a broker is authorised. Conduct supervision sits with the ACPR, the prudential and resolution authority, and since the broking reform with ACPR-approved professional associations that brokers must join. ORIAS is the French equivalent of the FCA register in the UK or the FSP register in South Africa.

What you need to know

For a UK, Irish or Dutch broker dealing with France, the practical points are these. A French broker can be verified on the public ORIAS register by name or number; an EU broker passporting into France under IDD freedom of services appears there too. Since Brexit, UK brokers cannot passport and need a locally authorised partner or entity for French business. Belgium (FSMA), Luxembourg (Commissariat aux Assurances) and Switzerland (FINMA) keep their own registers.

The comparison with Africa is instructive: South Africa's FSP register under FAIS plays a similar role, with the key individual and representatives listed; in the CIMA zone and Morocco, broker licences come from ministries or ACAPS without a single searchable register of this kind.

On WhatsApp, ORIAS comes down to identification. A message from an employee's personal phone without the firm's name does not identify the intermediary as French rules require. The firm's WhatsApp Business profile (name, address, website, description) and first-contact templates should name the brokerage and point to the legal notice page where the ORIAS number appears. ORIS runs on the WhatsApp Business API with a number in the firm's name, Meta-approved templates that name the firm, and history retained at company level. See the compliance hub and the country pages for France and its neighbours.

Concrete example

A Dutch brokerage writing French risks through a Paris partner checks the partner's ORIAS number on the public register before the first joint client campaign. The welcome template sent from the French firm's WhatsApp number names the firm and the account manager and links to the legal notice; clients who want to check can verify the registration themselves.