Groupe Caisse D'Épargne

Groupe Caisse d'épargne (, ) was a group of French savings banks that were converted into cooperative banks by legislation enacted in 1999. Its roots went back to the founding in 1818 of the , initiated by Benjamin Delessert and the Duke of La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt.

The group was active in retail and private banking, with around 4700 branches in the country, as well as holding a significant stake in the publicly traded investment bank 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

The first French savings bank () was created in Paris in 1818 by a group of financiers, social reformers and philanthropists that included Benjamin Delessert, Jean-Conrad Hottinguer, Joseph Marie de Gérando, Jacques Laffitte, the 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.

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, and fully centralized it from 1895.

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 ( or ) to differentiate them from the state-owned CNE.

In 1983, new legislation created a central financial entity or "national center", the (CENCEP). In 1992, CENCEP was replaced by the (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 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 Groupe Banque Populaire, agreed to merge their commercial and investment banking subsidiaries, respectively Ixis and Natexis Banques Populaires. The new entity was given the name Natixis, a portmanteau of Natexis and Ixis. Natixis went through an initial public offering on , 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 during the 2008 financial crisis, including on investments into Bernie Madoff's funds. Key executives had to resign or were sacked: Nicolas Mérindol and , respectively CEO and chairman of CNCE, on ; and Bruno Mettling, respectively chairman of Natixis and CEO of BFBP, on ; and , CEO of Natexis, on .

In October 2008 Groupe Caisse d'épargne announced plans to merge with Groupe Banque Populaire, in response to recent consolidation in the banking industry. Press agency AFP linked the announcement directly to the 2008 financial crisis. 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.

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.

Operations

The group's most notable brand is the ''Caisse d'épargne'' network of mutual savings banks. Along with La Banque Postale and Crédit Mutuel, the bank shared the rights to offer the popular Livret A savings accounts, backed by the French government until January 1, 2009.

In addition, the group is also the owner of the mortgage bank Crédit Foncier, the corporate and private bank Banque Palatine and Financière Océor, a commercial, private asset management and specialist finance bank serving France's overseas departments.

In 2006 Groupe Caisse d'épargne merged its investment bank IXIS Corporate and Investment Bank with Groupe Banque Populaire's Natexis, creating Natixis, a publicly traded investment bank in which Caisse d'épargne and Groupe Banque Populaire currently hold an equal stake of 35.25%. 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 ICA Global 300 list of mutuals and co-operatives, ranked 11th by 2005 turnover, making it the 2nd largest co-operative banking group in the world, after Crédit Agricole. It was the fourth French bank and the twenty-fifth bank in the world by total assets in 2008.

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

Sponsorship

The group was the title sponsor of a Spanish professional cycling team from 2006 to 2010, after which Movistar took over sponsorship.

The group is a sponsor of the French Handball Federation.

Gallery

File:Caisse d'épargne Amiens.jpg, Caisse d'épargne, Amiens
File:Caisse d'épargne de Bordeaux ext.jpg, Caisse d'épargne, Bordeaux
File:Caisse d'Épargne de Chambéry (2018).JPG, Caisse d'épargne, Chambéry
File:Hôtel Caisse Épargne - Dijon (FR21) - 2022-04-16 - 1.jpg, Caisse d'épargne, Dijon
File:Agence Caisse Épargne Fontainebleau 2.jpg, Caisse d'épargne, Fontainebleau
File:Bâtiment Caisse Épargne Moulins Allier 4.jpg, Caisse d'épargne, Moulins
File:PA45000017 Hôtel de la caisse d'épargne (3).jpg, Caisse d'épargne, Orléans
File:Saint-Flour - Hôtel de Ville - Caisse d'Epargne - place d'Armes 17 bis (1-2016) P1040715cr.jpg, Caisse d'épargne, Saint-Flour
File:Agence Caisse Épargne Sens 2.jpg, Caisse d'épargne, Sens
File:9 Place Saint-Thomas Strasbourg 20200124 002.jpg, Caisse d'épargne, Strasbourg
File:Vesoul bâtiment de la Caisse d'Epargne.jpg, Caisse d'épargne, Vesoul
File:P1040384 Paris Ier rue des Capucines immeuble n°19 rwk.JPG, Former head office of Crédit Foncier at 19, rue des Capucines
File:Hôtel de Richepanse 001.JPG, Hotel de Richepanse at 3–5, rue Masseran, former head office of CENCEP, CNCE and Eulia
File:NatixisParis.JPG, Head office of Natixis in 2007, near the Gare de Lyon
File:Palatine rue anjou.jpg, Former seat of Schneider et Cie at 42, rue d'Anjou in Paris, since December 2007 head office of Banque Palatine

References

External links

Groupe Caisse d'épargne official site

Natixis official site

Jban official site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caisse d'Epargne
Caisse d'Épargne
Banks established in 1818
French companies established in 1818
BPCE