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Accounting practices
No single source of accounting regulations exists in France. Accounting practice has been developed from legislation in order to satisfy the requirements of the fiscal authorities and commercial laws (Code de Commerce), where banks provided the major part of company finance.
The first National Accounting Code (Plan Comptable Général) was developed out of the Goring Code of 1942 and was introduced in 1947 with a permanent Council to enforce it throughout France. It was revised in 1957. The Plan Comptable (Chart of Accounts) and the Code de Commerce were completely rewritten in 1982, as a result of the updating of Company Law of 24 July 1966 to ensure conformity with EU directives, in particular the Fourth and Seventh Directives. A further revision of the Chart is in preparation aimed at giving it a more "semi-constant" status to respond to the rapid developments taking place at domestic, European and US level.
As a professional body, the OEC became effective from 1945 onwards, and was most recently reformed in 1994. French legislation introduced to implement the mutual recognition of diplomas also contained minor provisions designed to modernise the regulation of the accountancy profession.