Most of prudential regulations apply to national institutions while, in practice, banks operate at the global level, generating international banking flows which are not comprehensively captured by policies with a domestic remit. This may give rise to spillovers, i.e., effects not considered ex ante in the objectives and/or constraints of authorities in charge of prudential policy, the effectiveness of which may be harmed. Using BIS data on foreign bank lending over a large sample of countries, we investigate international spillovers from French prudential policies. Overall, we show that French prudential policies entail a reduction in foreign banks' lending to French residents. Yet some measures may lead to undesired leakages that potentially undermine authorities' goals: foreign bank affiliates’ exposure to France rose by 1.1% (1.9 Bn USD) on average over 2011–17 owing to the implementation of Basel capital requirements.