Towards the Obligation of Warning Imposed on Banks: A Reading of French Judicial Decisions

The financial crisis and its consequences on households have led the judge to strengthen borrower protections in terms of granting credit. Whether these are granted to professionals or to non-professionals, this is how the concept of uninformed borrower and the duty to warn gradually emerged. The result of hesitant jurisprudential developments, the duty to warn is not applied in the same way depending on the status of the borrower. Therefore, it must be about the legal frameworks. If it appears that the bank’s warning commitment comes into conflict with the bank’s principle of non-interference in the client’s affairs, then in reality its intervention in this obligation is primarily through the elaboration a plan and technical support in the form of warnings, which consists of exercising caution in accordance with what is contained in banking practices. It imposed new obligations on the banker in granting credit, since he was successively subject to the obligation to inform, then to the obligation to advise to guide the borrower, and finally to the obligation to warn, thus giving the bank an active role. Based on this information, the following question arises: What are the legal controls to comply with the warning, the violation of which entails the bank’s liability?