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What is the FNCI and how does it work?

  • Updated

🇫🇷 This article only applies to companies registered in France.

 

When you want to deposit a cheque with Qonto, we first verify its regularity with the Banque de France for you and inform you of the result before you can confirm the deposit. This verification solely serves the purpose of better protecting you from fraudulent cheques. We recommend checking the result on your Qonto app before accepting cheques.

 

What is the FNCI list?

FNCI stands for National Irregular Cheque Register and is a database of stolen and opposed cheques made available to remitters by the Banque de France. It helps you and other Qonto customers to reduce the risk of cashing fraudulent cheques.

 

How to read the FNCI result?

The FNCI result is displayed to you on the review screen. It can either be ‘Positive’ or ‘Irregular’.

 

Positive: This cheque was not found on the FNCI list, which means that the risk of it being a fraudulent cheque is lower. We recommend proceeding and confirming the deposit in this case.

 

Irregular cheque: This cheque was found on the FNCI register, which means the risk of it being a fraudulent cheque is higher. We recommend that you abandon the deposit of this cheque and contact the cheque issuer to request a new cheque or another type of payment.

 

Important: If you confirm the deposit of a cheque with an ‘Irregular cheque’ result, it will be rejected.

 

In addition, we provide you with additional FNCI data under the result:

  • Verification code: Green means ‘Positive’; Orange or Red means ‘Irregular cheque’ (e.g. closed account, account holder banned from writing cheque, cheque has been reported lost or stolen, etc).

  • CPT1: Number of FNCI verifications on this day for cheques issued by the account holder of the issuing bank.

  • CPT2 & 3: Number of FNCI verifications in the last few days for cheques issued by the account holder of the issuing bank

  • Issuing bank: Bank that issued the cheque with this cheque number (Tip: if the issuing bank listed here and the bank listed on your physical cheque do not match, it may be a fraudulent cheque)

     

Why do I need to issue a mandate?

Qonto does not access the FNCI list directly but through a service provider authorized by the Banque de France who will act on behalf of the clients. This mandate is necessary to give our control partner Tessi the right to access the FNCI list and verify the regularity of your cheques.

 

You only need to activate the mandate once. You can also suspend the mandate at any time (see below how).

 

Note: Even if you have already deposited cheques with Qonto, we ask you now to activate this mandate as it is necessary for future verifications.

 

Can I suspend the mandate?

Yes, you can suspend the mandate at any time.

 

To do this, go to the Cheques section and click on ‘Manage mandate’. On this page, you can suspend the mandate by clicking on the red ‘Suspend mandate’ button.

 

If you suspend the mandate, you will no longer be able to deposit cheques. However, you can reactivate the mandate at any time.