The Bank of France released its 2024 assessment of household over-indebtedness, showing filings to departmental over-indebtedness commissions increased by 10.8% to 134,803 cases while processing times remained stable. It also published a report marking 20 years of the Groupe de Place Robustesse, the Paris financial centre’s public-private coordination framework intended to prevent major operational crises from disrupting the financial system. Over-indebtedness filings rose by around 13,000 compared with 2023, with the increase partly attributed to lagged effects of the inflation episode on the budgets of the most financially fragile households; growth slowed in the second half of the year (+9%) versus the first half (+12.6%). Filings remained below pre-pandemic and earlier levels (down 6% versus 2019 and down 42% versus 2014). Average time from filing to an admissibility decision stayed at about one month, and time from filing to a commission solution remained about three and a half months. Total debt covered by over-indebtedness cases reached EUR 4.5 billion (+6%), versus EUR 1,500 billion of overall household indebtedness; excluding mortgage debt, median debt was EUR 17,447 (+3%) and mean debt EUR 30,315 per case (stable). Consumer credit rose to 43% of debt (with 73% of cases containing at least one consumer credit debt), mortgage debt fell to 26%, current charges were stable at 14% (including energy and communication at 2%, or EUR 104 million), and other debts fell to 17%. The Bank of France highlighted that over-indebted individuals are predominantly aged 25–64, often live alone, are overrepresented among employees, workers and jobseekers, and frequently have living standards below the French minimum wage (SMIC), with employment, family and health shocks identified as key risks. The operational resilience report describes how the Groupe de Place Robustesse, created in 2005, has developed crisis-management arrangements and runs annual crisis exercises involving authorities and market participants, and places the framework alongside broader European and international arrangements. It highlights a large-scale crisis-management exercise conducted in April 2024 under G7 auspices, prepared by the Bank of France, involving 23 financial authorities and more than 2,500 financial-sector participants, including testing preparedness for cyber risk. Looking ahead, the programme foresees strengthened cross-sector coordination, deeper international collaboration and exploration of additional risk and threat scenarios, building on experience from events including the Covid-19 pandemic and the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

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