Yes, you need ID either way. I think Bank of France will open you an account without any other condition than proving your existence, but without any convenience on it outside of the bare minimum (it’s part of their role as a societal service)
Well, the thing is that the ID asserts that there is a government party that is a guarantor to that you exist and you are who you say you are. So by showing them the ID they know that all the work is done to assert this and they only need to match the persons face/bio to the card to assert the identity.
All banks in the EU are bound by law to assert that the person doing a transaction is who he is and is identifiable. So it’s not just because their “role as a societal service”.
