Franco-Chinese Bank

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Former BFC headquarters in Paris, 74 rue Saint-Lazare

The Franco-Chinese Bank, in French Banque Franco-Chinoise (BFC), full name Banque Franco-Chinoise pour le Commerce et l’Industrie (Chinese: 中法工商银行), was a French bank with operations in China and French Indochina, and later in the Indian Ocean and the French West Indies. In 1925 it succeeded the Société française de gérance de la Banque industrielle de Chine, an asset management company that had been formed in October 1922 following the closure of the Banque Industrielle de Chine.

In 1964, after the loss of much of its original activity in Asia, its name was changed to Banque Française pour le Commerce, and in 1968, to Banque Française Commerciale, thus preserving the acronym BFC. The BFC brand survives in Banque Française Commerciale Océan Indien, since 2003 a joint venture between Mauritius Commercial Bank and Société Générale with operations in Réunion and Mayotte.

Société française de gérance de la Banque industrielle de Chine (1922-1925)

The Société française de gérance de la Banque industrielle de Chine was created in October 1922 to manage the

Saigon).[4]

Banque Franco-Chinoise (1925-1964)

On 26 November 1925, the shareholders of the Société de gérance approved its renaming as the Franco-Chinese Bank.

art deco building for its branch in Hanoi was inaugurated on 27 October 1930;[9] as of 2022 it still existed and was used by the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade.[10] By 1931 another branch office existed in Quy Nhon,[11] and by 1932 in Phnom Penh.[12]

The bank faced difficulties in the late 1930s. It closed its branch in Haiphong from October 1936.[13] In late 1936 it was persuaded by Jean Monnet to partner with the China Development Finance Corporation for infrastructure development in China, but the plan was compromised by the second Sino-Japanese War. Its capital was restructured in 1938 with participation by the BPPB, the Banque de l'Indochine, and Lazard frères & Cie.[14] By 1939, the bank only retained Asian branch offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin in Chine, and Hanoi, Saigon and Phnom Penh in Indochina.

In 1951, having lost its Chinese business to the country's

Diên Biên Phu, the bank closed its offices in North Vietnam but still expanded in South Vietnam and Cambodia, with branches in Battambang and Kampong Cham.[15]

In 1960, the

Tamatave in Madagascar.[15]

Banque Française pour le Commerce (1964-1968)

In 1965, the government of South Vietnam wished to create a domestic bank sector. The BFC participated in the creation of the Banque pour le Commerce, l'Industrie et l'Agriculture (Vietnamese: Nong Cong Thuong Ngan Hang) with South Vietnamese management seconded from BFC.

A change in French law in 1967 liberalized branching, enabling BFC to increase the number of its branches in mainland France.

Banque Française Commerciale (since 1968)

BFC branch in Cayenne, French Guiana in 2013

In Madagascar, the BFC's operations were affected by political turmoil that commenced in 1972. In 1975, the Malagasy Republic nationalized its operations and transferred them to the Banque Financière et Commerciale Malagache. That same year, the fall of Saigon put an end to the BFC's activity in South Vietnam. In Cambodia, during the terror launched by the Khmer Rouge regime, the bank's representative, an ethnic Chinese, and his family were all assassinated.

BFC decided to pivot towards the Indian Ocean. In 1976 it established a branch in Réunion, and also established a branch in Mayotte at the request of the French Government, as the island's pre-existing banking services disappeared after its split from the Comoros. In 1979, BFC acquired the Banque Antillaise with operations in the French West Indies, and opened a branch in French Guiana. It also opened branches in 1981 in the Seychelles, and in 1982 in Dominica.[17]

By early 1975, the Banque de l'Indochine held 79 percent of the BFC's equity.[18] In 1985, Banque Indosuez, the successor entity of the Banque de l'Indochine since 1975, decided to split BFC into three entities with respective operations in France (BFC-France), Reunion, Mayotte and the Seychelles (Banque Française Commerciale Océan Indien / BFCOI); and the French West Indies and Guiana (Banque Française Commerciale Antilles-Guyane / BFCAG). BFC-France was acquired in 1989 by Istituto Bancario San Paolo di Torino.[19] In 1992, Mauritius Commercial Bank acquired BFCOI, of which Société Générale purchased 50 percent in 2003. BFCAG was acquired by Crédit Agricole in 1996 together with the rest of Banque Indosuez, and was fully absorbed into Credit Agricole's subsidiary LCL S.A. in 2015.[17]

Leadership

The following individuals were chairmen of the board of BFC:[15]

Goerges Carrère was the bank's general manager until joining the board of directors in March 1936. He had no successor on that position.[20]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Société française de gérance de la Banque industrielle de Chine" (PDF). La Cote de la Bourse et de la banque. 31 October 1922.
  2. ^ "Chronique financière : Société française de gérance de la Banque industrielle de Chine" (PDF). L'Eveil économique de l'Indochine. 8 October 1922.
  3. ^ "Société française de gérance de la Banque industrielle de Chine" (PDF). Les Annales coloniales. 24 December 1923.
  4. ^ "Société française de gérance de la Banque industrielle de Chine" (PDF). Les Annales coloniales. 31 December 1924.
  5. ^ "Société française de gérance de la Banque industrielle de Chine" (PDF). L'Economiste parlementaire. 10 December 1925.
  6. ^ "Nouvelles agences de la Banque franco-chinoise" (PDF). L'Eveil économique de l'Indochine. 19 June 1927.
  7. ^ "Annam" (PDF). L'Indochine : revue économique d'Extrême-Orient. 5 September 1927.
  8. ^ "Nouvelles de l'Annam : La succursale de Hué de la Banque franco-chinoise" (PDF). L'Echo annamite. 16 September 1927.
  9. ^ "Hanoï : L'inauguration des nouveaux bureaux de l'agence de la Banque franco-chinoise" (PDF). L'Avenir du Tonkin. 28 October 1930.
  10. ^ Bao Yen (16 July 2017). "Hanoi, then and now". VNExpress.
  11. ^ "Conseil des intérêts économiques et financiers de l'Annam" (PDF). Bulletin admintif de l'Annam. 27 April 1931.
  12. ^ "Cambodge" (PDF). L'Indochine : revue économique d'Extrême-Orient. 5 May 1932.
  13. ^ "Fermeture de la Banque franco-chinoise à Haïphong" (PDF). Chantecler. 8 October 1936.
  14. ^ "À la Banque franco-chinoise" (PDF). Chantecler. 5 June 1938.
  15. ^ a b c d "Banque Franco-Chinoise pour le Commerce et l'Industrie (BFC) (1922-1968)" (PDF). entreprises-coloniales.fr. 19 January 2014.
  16. ^ Tim Doling (29 March 2015). "Old Saigon Building of the Week – 32 Ham Nghi, 1926". Historic Viet Nam.
  17. ^ a b "Banque Française Commerciale (BFC)" (PDF). entreprises-coloniales.fr. 5 February 2018.
  18. ^ Jean-Noël Jeanneney (1981), L'argent caché : Milieux d'affaires et pouvoirs politiques dans la France du XXe siècle, Paris: Éditions du Seuil, p. 208
  19. ^ "Le San Paolo s'offre une nouvelle filiale de Suez" (PDF). La Tribune de l'Expansion. 12 June 1989.
  20. ^ "Banque franco-chinoise pour le commerce et l'industrie : Assemblée ordinaire du 31 mars 1936" (PDF). L'information d'Indochine, économique et financière. 2 May 1936.
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