Chapter II: Regulatory capital requirements

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Article R352-1

French Insurance CodeIn force

Updated 7 Nov 2023

For the purposes of this Chapter :

1° "Underwriting risk" means the risk of loss, or of adverse change in the value of insurance liabilities, resulting from inadequate pricing and reserving assumptions;

2° "Market risk" means the risk of loss, or of adverse change in the financial position, resulting directly or indirectly from fluctuations in the level and volatility of the market value of assets, liabilities and financial instruments;

3° "Credit risk" means the risk of loss, or of adverse change in the financial situation, resulting from fluctuations in the credit quality of issuers of securities, counterparties or any debtor, to which insurance and reinsurance undertakings are exposed in the form of counterparty risk, margin risk or concentration of market risk;

4° "Operational risk" means the risk of loss resulting from inadequate or failed internal procedures, staff or systems, or from external events;

5° "Liquidity risk" means the risk that insurance and reinsurance undertakings will not be able to realise their investments and other assets in order to meet their financial commitments when they fall due;

6° "Concentration risk" refers to all risk exposures with a loss potential large enough to threaten the solvency or financial position of insurance and reinsurance undertakings;

7° "Risk mitigation techniques" means all techniques which enable insurance and reinsurance undertakings to transfer all or part of their risks to another party;

8° "Diversification effects" means the reduction in risk exposure which results from insurance and reinsurance undertakings and groups diversifying their activities, where the adverse result of one risk can be offset by the more favourable result of another risk, where those risks are not perfectly correlated;

9° The term "probability distribution forecast" refers to a mathematical function that assigns a probability of occurrence to an exhaustive set of mutually exclusive future events;

10° "Risk measure" means a mathematical function which assigns a monetary amount to a given probability distribution and which increases monotonically with the level of exposure to the risk underlying that probability distribution.

Mariela Petrova

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Working with a corporate lawyer in France — Q&A

Any time a strategic decision changes how the company is owned, governed or contractually bound — incorporation, fundraising, M&A, restructuring, shareholder agreements, or major commercial contracts. Earlier engagement always costs less than later remediation.

A notary (notaire) is a public officer who authenticates specific deeds (mainly real-estate transfers and certain family-law acts). A corporate lawyer (avocat) advises on strategy, negotiates and drafts company documents, and represents you in disputes. The two roles complement rather than overlap.

Yes — most of our clients are foreign suppliers, investors or holding entities. We bridge the gap between French law and your home jurisdiction's expectations and deliver everything bilingually.

The SAS (Société par Actions Simplifiée) is the default choice for most international structures: flexible governance, single shareholder allowed, no minimum capital, and works cleanly with foreign holding entities. We assess SARL, SA, SCI on the merits when the situation calls for it.

Yes — communications with a French avocat are protected by the secret professionnel (Article 66-5 of the Law of 31 December 1971). This protection is broader than the common-law attorney-client privilege and applies to written and oral exchanges.

We work on fixed fees for clearly scoped engagements (incorporation, contract drafting, audits) and on monthly retainers for ongoing advisory. Hourly billing is the exception, not the default. You always know the cost before work starts.

Typical timeline is 2–3 weeks from KYC kick-off to RCS registration, assuming standard documentation. Holding-company structures, foreign-shareholder identification or in-kind contributions can extend this — we flag the gating items at the first meeting.

Absolutely. We routinely coordinate with your in-house counsel, expert-comptable or notaire — pragmatic collaboration is the norm, not the exception. We send them everything they need to do their part without duplicating work.

Mariela Petrova

Mariela Petrova

Avocate au Barreau de Paris

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15+ Years In Corporate Practice

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Communications protected by professional secrecy — secret professionnel de l'avocat, Article 66-5 of the Law of 31 December 1971.

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