Groupe Caisse d'Epargne is a French semi-cooperative banking group, founded in 1818, with around 4700 branches in the country. The group is active in retail and private banking, as well as holding a significant stake in the publicly-traded investment bank Natixis.
[edit] Operations
The group's most notable brand is the Caisse d'Epargne 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'Epargne 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'Epargne and Groupe Banque Populaire currently hold an equal stake of 35.25%.[1] Groupe Caisse d'Epargne 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.[2] It was the fourth French bank and the twenty-fifth bank in the world by total asset on 2008.[3]
[edit] Trading loss
The company suffered a €600 million derivatives trading loss in October 2008, which it blamed partly on the high market volatility at the time.[4] The group of employees responsible for making the unauthorised trades were dismissed.[5]
[edit] Proposed merger
In October 2008 Groupe Caisse d'Epargne announced plans to merge with fellow mutual Groupe Banque Populaire, in response to recent consolidation in the banking industry.[1] Press agency AFP linked the announcement directly to the ongoing global liquidity crisis.[1] The companies intend however to retain their separate retail banking brands and branch networks. If the merger is completed, the enlarged company,[1] would hold €480 billion in deposits and have over six million customers.[4]
The group has been the title sponsor of a Spanish professional cycling team since 2006.
[edit] References
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[edit] External links
