Groupe Caisse d'Épargne

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the French savings bank network. For the Luxembourgish bank, see
Caisse nationale d'épargne
.
Groupe Caisse d'épargne
Websitecaisse-epargne.fr

Groupe Caisse d'épargne (lit. 'Savings Bank Group') was a group of French

Duke of La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt
.

The group was active in

Natixis. In 2009, it merged with Groupe Banque Populaire to form Groupe BPCE
. A retail banking network under BPCE still uses the Caisse d'Épargne brand name.

History

La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

The first French savings bank (

François Alexandre Frédéric, duc de La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, James Mayer de Rothschild, and Vital Roux. Delessert and La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt were widely seen as the main promoters of the project. In subsequent years, Caisses d'Épargne were created in numerous French towns and cities on a decentralized basis, variously by initiative of Prefects, municipal councils, mounts of piety (traditional lending institutions overseen by the Catholic Church), and/or local religious (Catholic or Protestant) elites. Most of these were created in the northern half of the country, and overwhelmingly served urban rather than rural areas. As in other parts of Europe, the original aim to serve the lifelong financial needs of the lower classes were only partially met, and the client base of the Caisses d'Épargne including many members of the emerging and affluent middle classes, including women and children, albeit with significant geographical heterogeneity.[2]

The Caisses d'Épargne were not fully-fledged banks, since they were not allowed to lend. Their legal status, under successive national savings banks laws starting in 1829, was of idiosyncratic private-sector establishments that were never associations nor commercial companies, governed by boards of co-opted volunteers. The deposits they collected were invested in government bonds. The

Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, a financial arm of the French state, was involved in the management of the collected savings from 1837,[2] and fully centralized it from 1895.[3]
: 29 

By 1881, there were 542 local Caisses d'Épargne in the country. That year, the French government decided create the

Caisse Nationale d'Épargne (CNE), France's first postal savings system, which competed with the existing Caisses d'Épargne by leveraging France's post office network. From then on, the pre-existing Caisses d'Épargne were known as "ordinary" or "private" savings banks (French: Caisses ordinaires or caisses privées) to differentiate them from the state-owned CNE.[2]

In 1983, new legislation created a central financial entity or "national center", the Centre national des caisses d'épargne et de prévoyance (CENCEP). In 1992, CENCEP was replaced by the Caisse Nationale des Caisses d'Épargne (CNCE), which unlike CENCEP was a licensed bank. In 1999, new legislation transformed the savings banks into cooperatives. These developments paved the way for the gradual transformation of the decentralized network of savings banks into an increasingly integrated universal banking group in the next decade.

In July 1999, CNCE acquired majority ownership of Crédit Foncier de France. Also in 1999, France's Caisse des dépôts et consignations (CDC) formed a commercial and investment banking subsidiary, CDC IXIS. In 2001, CNCE and CDC formed a joint venture, Eulia, to which CDC contributed CDC IXIS. In June 2004, CNCE took full control of Eulia and therefore also of CDC IXIS, which it renamed Ixis. Between 2003 and 2008 CNCE separately acquired the French subsidiary of Sanpaolo IMI, including the former Banque Vernes [fr] and French operations of the Banque Française Commerciale, and made it its private banking subsidiary under the new brand Banque Palatine adopted in June 2005.

In 2006 the two groups, Caisse d'Épargne and fellow mutual

portmanteau of Natexis and Ixis. Natixis went through an initial public offering
on 25 October 2006, after which CNCE and BFBP each owned 35 percent of its equity capital, the rest being free float.

Natixis, however, soon suffered from poor capital allocation and risk management choices in the context of the

Financial crisis of 2007–2008, including on investments into Bernie Madoff's funds. Key executives had to resign or were sacked: Nicolas Mérindol and Charles Milhaud [fr], respectively CEO and chairman of CNCE, on 19 October 2008;[4] Bernard Comolet [fr] and Bruno Mettling, respectively chairman of Natixis and CEO of BFBP, on 6 March 2009;[5] and Dominique Ferrero [fr], CEO of Natexis, on 29 April 2009.[6]

In October 2008 Groupe Caisse d'épargne announced plans to merge with Groupe Banque Populaire, in response to recent consolidation in the banking industry.

financial crisis of 2007–2008.[7] The companies intend however to retain their separate retail banking brands and branch networks. The merged entity would hold €480 billion in deposits and have over six million customers.[8]

Groupe Caisse d'épargne completed its merger with the BFBP (Banque fédérale des banques populaires) in July 2009, and became

BPCE, France's second-largest bank.[9]

Operations

The group's most notable brand is the Caisse d'épargne network of

French government
until January 1, 2009.

In addition, the group is also the owner of the mortgage bank

overseas departments.[citation needed
]

In 2006 Groupe Caisse d'épargne merged its

Natixis, a publicly traded investment bank in which Caisse d'épargne and Groupe Banque Populaire currently hold an equal stake of 35.25%.[7] Groupe Caisse d'épargne has also since merged its private wealth management bank La Compagnie 1818
into the Natixis group.

The group is listed in the 2007

co-operative banking group in the world, after Crédit Agricole.[10] It was the fourth French bank and the twenty-fifth bank in the world by total assets in 2008.[11]

The company suffered a €751 million derivatives trading loss in October 2008, which it blamed partly on the high market volatility at the time.[8] The group of employees responsible for making the unauthorised trades was dismissed.[12]

Sponsorship

The group was the title sponsor of a

professional cycling team from 2006 to 2010, after which Movistar
took over sponsorship.
The group is a sponsor of the French Handball Federation.

Gallery

  • Caisse d'épargne, Amiens
    Caisse d'épargne, Amiens
  • Caisse d'épargne, Bordeaux
    Caisse d'épargne, Bordeaux
  • Caisse d'épargne, Chambéry
    Caisse d'épargne, Chambéry
  • Caisse d'épargne, Dijon
    Caisse d'épargne, Dijon
  • Caisse d'épargne, Fontainebleau
    Caisse d'épargne, Fontainebleau
  • Caisse d'épargne, Moulins
    Caisse d'épargne, Moulins
  • Caisse d'épargne, Orléans
    Caisse d'épargne, Orléans
  • Hôtel Bullion [fr], seat of the Caisse d'Épargne de Paris from 1844
    Hôtel Bullion [fr], seat of the Caisse d'Épargne de Paris from 1844
  • Caisse d'épargne, Reims
    Caisse d'épargne, Reims
  • Caisse d'épargne, Saint-Flour
    Caisse d'épargne, Saint-Flour
  • Caisse d'épargne, Sens
    Caisse d'épargne, Sens
  • Caisse d'épargne, Strasbourg
    Caisse d'épargne, Strasbourg
  • Caisse d'épargne, Vesoul
    Caisse d'épargne, Vesoul
  • Former head office of Crédit Foncier at 19, rue des Capucines
    Former head office of Crédit Foncier at 19, rue des Capucines
  • Hotel de Richepanse at 3–5, rue Masseran, former head office of CENCEP, CNCE and Eulia
    Hotel de Richepanse at 3–5, rue Masseran, former head office of CENCEP, CNCE and Eulia
  • Head office of Natixis in 2007, near the Gare de Lyon
    Head office of Natixis in 2007, near the Gare de Lyon
  • Former seat of Schneider et Cie at 42, rue d'Anjou in Paris, since December 2007 head office of Banque Palatine
    Former seat of
    Schneider et Cie
    at 42, rue d'Anjou in Paris, since December 2007 head office of Banque Palatine

References

  1. ^ Dilek Bülbül, Reinhard H. Schmidt & Ulrich Schüwer (September 2013), "Caisses d'épargne et banques coopératives en Europe", Revue d'économie financière (111(3))
  2. ^ a b c Carole Christen-Lécuyer (2004), "Histoire des Caisses d'épargne en France. 1818-1881. Une étude sociale", Revue d'histoire du XIXe siècle (28)
  3. ^ Patrice Baubeau, Eric Monnet, Angelo Riva, and Stefano Ungaro (2018), Flight-to-safety and the Credit Crunch: A new history of the banking crisis in France during the Great Depression (PDF), Banque de France{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ AFP (19 October 2008). "A la Caisse d'épargne, des demi-démissions". Libération.
  5. ^ CercleFinance.com (6 March 2009). "Natixis : F. Pérol nommé président du conseil de surveillance". BFM Bourse.
  6. ^ Laura Berny (30 April 2009). "Les têtes continuent de tomber dans les banques". Les Echos.
  7. ^
    Agence France Presse. 8 October 2008. Archived from the original
    on 2011-05-20. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
  8. ^ a b "French bank admits trading loss". BBC News. 17 October 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
  9. ^ "BPCE Official corporate presentation". BPCE. Archived from the original on 2012-11-16. Retrieved 2012-12-05.
  10. International Co-operative Alliance.[permanent dead link
    ]
  11. ^ "Top 50 Banks in the World". Bankersalmanac.com. 29 October 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-20.
  12. ^ Saltmarsh, Matthew (17 October 2008). "French lender uncovers €600 million loss on unauthorized trading". International Herald Tribune. Retrieved 2008-10-17.

External links

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