Banks in France

Credit Mutuel (fr. Crédit Mutuel) is a French cooperative bank. With about 80,000 employees serving more than 15 mln clients in 5,362 offices nationwide, the bank considered as one of the biggest in the country.

Founded in 1864, the Societe Generale Bank of France is the third largest bank in total assets and eighth ranked bank in Europe. The original name of the company was Société Générale pour favoriser le développement du commerce et de l’industrie en France or the English translation is the General Company to Support the Development of Commerce and Industry in France.

Crédit Agricole SA (CASA) is a central institution of the co-operative Crédit Agricole Group, one of France’s largest commercial banks. Among the main bank’s activities are credit cards, consumer banking, corporate banking, investment banking, mortgage loans, private banking, wealth management, asset management.

Caisse d’Epargne is one of the major banks in France, member of the BPCE Group, operating through a network of 17 mutual savings banks. The bank’s subsidiaries are Natixis, Crédit foncier de France, Banque Palatine, OCÉOR, Nexity, Banque BCP.

Credit Lyonnais, also known as LCL since 2005, is a French bank with head office in Lyon. The close to 20,900 employees take care of 320,000 business customers and 27,000 corporate and institutional customers, over and above the 6 million. Besides servicing personal and commercial accounts, the bank also offers investment services such as securities brokerage, asset management, and corporate finance.

BNP Paribas is one of the leading banking and financial services companies in Europe. The BNP Paribas Group operates in 80 countries and has around 200,000 employees (about a half of them serve customers in four domestic markets: Belgium, France, Italy and Luxembourg).

The French subsidiary of the HSBC Group was established on November 1st, 2005. The bank employs around 12,000 people and operates through a network of 380 branches in the country, offering banking and insurance services to expats, travellers and locals.

Natixis is an international bank, it has 22 000 experts present in 68 countries, developing activities in three main geographical areas: Americas, Asia-Oceania and EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa).

The retail network of the Banque Postale consists of more than 10,000 post offices where 30,000 professionals serving individual and corporate customers. Also all the bank’s products available through telephone, Internet and mobile channels.

The bank belongs to the Crédit du Nord financial group, made ​​up of seven financial institutions: Bank Courtois, Kolb bank Laydernier bank Nuger bank, the Rhône-Alpes bank, Tarneaud bank and Gilbert Dupont company.
Crédit du Nord has some 785 branches throughout the French territory and employs no fewer than 8,700 employees. Its customer base is now estimated at about 1.92 million customers, with a sharp rise in the first half of 2011 to 48,000 additional customers.

Credit Cooperatif is primarily known for his role of micro credits in France. According to the annual Microfinance Observatory Report for the 2010 published by the Bank of France, 19% of personal micro credits in France in 2010 were provided by the Credit Cooperatif.

CIC Banque is a bank in France, offering mainly savings accounts, mortgages, and loans to its customers. The bank aslo also owns stakes in specialised entities involved in private banking, asset management, leasing, securities brokerage, and property/casualty insurance.

The Banque Transatlantique has developed recognized expertise in the fields of the private banking, asset management, administration of employee share ownership scheme and the management of expatriates. Present in London since 1986, Banque Transatlantique continues to grow and multiply its operations at the international markets with subsidiaries, branches and representative offices: Singapore in 2001, Luxembourg in 2002, Brussels in 2005, New York , Montreal and Hong Kong in 2011, Geneva in 2012.

BRED is a cooperative inter-regional bank oriented to private customers, professionals, and small businesses. As for 2012, it served one million individuals, 62,000 professionals, 26,000 associations and 6,900 corporate and institutional customers.

Dexia Credit Local de France is a part of the Dexia Group, which was Franco-Belgian financial institution active in public finance, providing retail and commercial banking services to individuals and SMEs, asset management, and insurance.

AXA Banque operates in France as an arm of the AXA – multinational, investment banking firm headquartered in Paris. The group is active on Investment banking, Investment management, Life and health insurance markets.

Banque Populaire is a group of cooperative banks in France, which along with other financial group – Groupe Caisse d’Epargne, forming form the Group BPCE – one of the largest financial groups in the country.

Being one of the oldest banks in France, Banque Palatine was founded in 1780 and its original name was Banque Sanpaolo. It was founded originally in Lyon, France and is still one of the oldest banks still being run.