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Legal bonds & guarantees
for regulated professions
Do you need a guarantor to run your business?
AU Group offers legal bonds and financial guarantees for many regulated professions or to meet your obligations to state bodies.
Legal bonds & guarantees for regulated professions
Legal bonds & guarantees for regulated professions
The surety market is evolving. The historical bank guarantors, subject to new and increasingly restrictive prudential rules, are today less present in the issuance of financial guarantees for regulated professions or in favor of public authorities.
We negotiate legal surety lines on your behalf with guarantors specialized in your sectors and assist you in setting them up.
- Issue your financial guarantees via specialized insurers to free up bank credit lines
- Diversify your guarantors according to your issuance needs on the national and international market
- Get advice on audits in line with current obligations
Benefits
The use of surety bonds facilitates the financing of the development of companies:
- Preserve your borrowing capacity and bank credit lines without mobilizing collateral
- Delay a cash outflow (Customs bond)
- Access regulated professions (Temporary Work Company guarantee)
- Avoid tying up funds (e.g. FranceAgrimer guarantee)
How it works
A guarantor insurer can offer a line of credit enabling you to compliant with your legal and regulatory obligations through the issuance of surety bonds, which are very common in the transport, logistics, agri-food, environmental, real estate professionals, travel agencies, temping sectors.
AU Group supports you in finding and setting up the financial guarantees essential to your activities, as well as throughout the life of existing bonds (renewal, audit).
What are the different types of legal bonds?
To carry out their activities, certain professions must provide legal bonds to meet the requirements of various state agencies. The following will help you comply with these legal obligations.
Excise bonds - Wines & Spirits
Required by the State, they concern the storage and shipment of excisable products before they are placed on the market.
- Warehouse credit: obligatory upon receipt or processing of excisable products in a tax warehouse.
- Liquidation credit: allows deferred payment of excise duties.
- National and intracommunity (European Union) expedition credit
- Removal credit : concerns authorized warehousekeepers, allowing them to defer payment of excise duties from the date of liquidation.
Agri-bonds
They cover the repayment of advances, penalties due in the event of non-compliance with the principle of earmarking the amount of aid awarded, or the replacement of the security deposit for tenders.
Customs bonds
Also known as Final Import Bonds, Removal Credits or Bonded Warehouse Bonds, these are used in your international operations, as an importer or forwarder, when you are required to pay customs duties to the customs authorities to take possession of your goods. This enables you to suspend payment or defer payment with the administrations.
Guarantees for regulated professions
AU Group offers financial guarantees essential to the practice of regulated professions.
A financial guarantee is required for certain regulated professions in France in order to protect customers or third parties against the risks of default linked to the activity of these professionals.
Travel Agency Bonds
They cover advances issued by tourists in favor of a travel agency, it is for the benefit of ATOUT France (article L.211 - 1 du Code du Tourisme).
For companies involved in international trade, logistics, transport.
Compliance with regulations is imperative and the Public Authorities often require solid financial guarantees to ensure compliance with these obligations.
Cautions Intérim - Temporary employment agency
They ensure the proper payment of compulsory contributions due to social security organizations, provident funds and pension funds, as well as the wages and allowances of temporary employees (Article L124 of the Labor Code).
Environmental bonds - ICPE (Installation Classée pour la Protection de l'Environnement) classified sites
Financial guarantee required by the authorities for the operation, storage or restoration of sites (quarries, so-called "Seveso" facilities, technical landfill centers).
- Dismantling of wind-powered production facilities.
- WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment).
- Cross-border transport bond Transport of Hazardous Materials TTD
Financial guarantee under the Hoguet Act - Real estate professionals
Whatever their activity as a transaction, rental management or condominium manager, all real estate players are subject to the Hoguet, ALUR and ELAN laws. As such, they are obliged to subscribe financial guarantees whenever they collect or manage funds from their customers.
Financial guarantee for auctions - voluntary sales operators (OVV)
The annual auction sales guarantee makes it possible to secure transactions when funds pass through the hands of voluntary sales operators. It covers the representation of funds held on behalf of others.
Why trust AU Group with your bonding solutions?
- AU Group provides new Surety capabilities through AU Group's access to guarantors specialized in your sectors.
- Our teams guarantee efficient responsiveness in the execution of mandates to study and place surety lines.
- All our staff have perfect knowledge of the wide range of legal warranties and the legal framework for each.
- Our experts maintain a permanent legal watch on ICPE, CRE warranties and other types of deeds in emerging markets (Energy, Environment).
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Frequently asked questions
All the answers to your questions about legal bonds and guarantees for regulated professions.
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In certain sectors (real estate, travel, legal professions, temporary employment, energy, etc.), companies hold third-party funds (e.g. customer deposits, advance payments, rent).
The financial guarantee ensures that these funds will be returned in the event of the company's default.
The law requires a financial guarantee to ensure that the company meets its contractual or regulatory obligations, to reimburse sums collected in advance (travel agencies) or to return a security deposit (estate agents), and also to pay social security contributions collected (temporary employment agencies).
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A bank guarantee consumes the company's credit line, limiting its borrowing capacity. An insurance guarantee, on the other hand, is off-balance sheet and does not affect the company's borrowing capacity (financial leverage).
Using an insurer allows you to diversify your financial partners and avoid dependence on a single banking network.
Finally, insurers specialising in surety bonds have expertise in specific sectors (construction, customs, environment, energy, public tenders, etc.).
They offer tailored models (legal, customs, market and environmental guarantees, etc.), which are sometimes more flexible than those offered by banks.
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A customs bond is a financial guarantee for the benefit of the Customs Administration. It covers the payment of duties and taxes related to imports/exports (customs duties, VAT, excise duties, etc.).
When importing goods, duties and taxes are payable immediately upon customs clearance. If the company has a bond in place, it does not pay immediately: Customs records the debt but agrees to defer it, as it knows that it is covered by the guarantee. If the company fails to pay, Customs calls on the bond and the guarantor pays on its behalf.
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Many regulated professions must provide a legal bond or financial guarantee required by law and validated by the State in order to carry out their activities. These surety contracts concern, for example, temporary employment agencies, travel agencies, real estate professionals subject to the building code, and voluntary sales operators. In all cases, a guarantor undertakes to pay in the event of default or non-payment by the debtor. This approach allows professionals to comply with legal obligations without tying up a financial deposit.
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In the event of a guarantee claim by the public beneficiary (government and public bodies such as Customs, URSSAF, Prefecture, etc.), the debtor may face significant consequences.
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In many cases, financial guarantees make it possible to avoid depositing funds with the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC). This solution frees up cash flow, reduces immediate cash outflows and provides flexibility, because if business increases, the company must increase the amount of the deposit. The financial guarantee therefore acts as an ideal substitute for deposit. It protects companies in the same way as a deposit with the CDC, but allows them to avoid tying up their funds.
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AU Group assists every company and professional in regulated sectors with setting up legal guarantees. We identify guarantor partners capable of providing this type of guarantee, determine the conditions for granting credit lines, and ensure that financial deposits are not tied up as collateral.
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