The French financial market supervisor, Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), revealed on Monday that there were more than 1.5 million active investors in the country's stock markets in 2022. The figure was 5.5 percent lower than the previous year, with about 1.6 million active investors, but higher than 1.3 million active investors in 2020.

France Ended 2022 with Over 1.5 Million Active Investors

"The French were still numerous to intervene in the stock market, which is good news for their savings and for the financing of our economy. In the medium and long term, investing in shares remains the most attractive investment for building up savings and financing one's lifelong projects," said the Chair of the AMF, Marie-Anne Barbat-Layani (translated from French).

"The AMF will step up its efforts to support retail investors, especially novices and the youngest, to adopt a long-term perspective."

The official data, which the French regulator publishes every quarter, came after a regulatory survey found a drop in the sentiment among new investors to invest in the country's equities markets in 2022 compared to the previous year.

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Sizable Entry of New French Investors

According to the French market supervisor, about 195,000 new investors entered the French equities markets last year. These are either new accounts or have been inactive since January 2018. Further, the number of such accounts reached 1.3 million in the previous four years, 2019 and 2022.

However, a decline in the activities was clearly visible in the markets last year. The number of transactions in the European Union equities market dropped by 24 percent to 42.2 million. However, the figure was much higher than the four-year average of around 24 million transactions.

The AMF found a growing demand for exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the last three years, with a 14 percent uptick in the last year. However, equities remained the most traded instruments by retail traders.

Recently, the Fench regulator disclosed its top focus areas of action and supervisory priorities for 2023, which include the promotion of retail investments. Meanwhile, many crypto companies are entering France. BUX, eToro, Binance, and Crypto.com were some of the companies that entered the country with the AMF's Digital Asset Service Provider (DASP) registration.