France's National Assembly on Tuesday approved an amendment to the government's latest finance bill that would require the U.S. government to ensure that U.S. banks and financial institutions provide the same information to France's government about accounts held by French taxpayers that French financial entities are currently providing annually to the U.S. government, as they're required to do by the U.S. law known as FATCA.

France's banking industry has drawn up changes to the country's banking regulations that are expected to make things (slightly) easier for those American expats living in France who have struggled to obtaining a local bank account there. 

Citigroup, the New York-based, NYSE-listed, multinational banking company that many U.S. expats still have accounts with, has announced that it's expanding its private banking business in Europe, with new offices set to open in Germany and France. 

...but expats say they're still very much on hold in Australia 

Americans living in the UK and France who have been waiting for more than two years to relinquish, or give up, their U.S. citizenships are now once again able to do so, as the U.S. offices that handle such relinquishments in these countries have at last reopened.

A brief statement by IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig yesterday, in support of the idea of the U.S. "reciprocating" with respect to the information it currently receives from foreign governments about the overseas bank and financial accounts of U.S. taxpayers – as a result of a 2010 law known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) – has sparked widespread discussion and debate, particularly outside of the U.S.

A reader asks: ‘How do I navigate the shoals of being between U.S. and French citizenship, without having to put all my assets into cash and sticking them under my mattress for a few years?’

France's National Assembly is set to meet tomorrow to discuss a plan calling for a change to an existing "intergovernmental agreement" currently in place between France and the U.S.  – introduced to enable French financial institutions to comply with the U.S. anti-tax evasion law known as FATCA – that would oblige the U.S. to begin delivering on the "reciprocity" of information exchange that certain French lawmakers say their government understood to have been part of the IGA deal at the time it was agreed to by both parties in 2013. 

The founder and president of the Paris-based Association des Américains Accidentels (Accidental Americans Association, or AAA) has formally requested that the U.S. Ambassador to France see to the "re-open the renunciation services and the FBU (Federal Benefits Unit)" in France.

Portugal has leapt six places to top International Living's annual Global Retirement Index, which ranks countries around the world on their suitability for individuals who are looking to retire in a country other than the one in which they currently live.