List of Largest French Banks

The bank was established in 1882 and currently headquartered in Strasbourg, Alsace. Among others, it provides Consumer Banking, Corporate banking, Private banking and insurance services to customers in France and abroad.

Societe General is one of the most known French banks. It has two headquarters in Paris: registered office at Boulevard Haussmann, 9th arrondissement, Paris and operational office – at Tours Société Générale, Nanterre/La Défense, France.

Credit Agricole, also known as the Green Bank because of its original activity in the service of world agriculture, is a French network of cooperative banks composed of 39 regional units. The list of bank’s subsidiaries includes LCL Le Crédit Lyonnais, Crédit agricole CIB, Cariparma, Amundi and BforBank.

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.

The bank was founded in 1818 in Paris. It is a part of the Caisse d’Epargne financial group, that until July 2009 consisted of 17 branches in France. On 31 July, 2009, the bank teamed up with the Banques Populaires and as a result, the new company, called Groupe BPCE, became the second largest banking group in France.

Henri Germain was the brainchild behind the creation of Credit Lyonnais (LCL) when it was formed in July 1863. It remained the world’s largest bank until 1900. By the time the 1990’s rolled around, Credit Lyonnais had become the largest state-owned bank in France.

BNP Paribas Group was founded in 2000 by the merger of BNP and Paribas. The company inherits traditions of the two largest banks – BNP, the first French bank, whose origins date back to 1848, and the investment bank Paribas, founded in 1872. Today, the banking group operates in three strategic main areas: Retail Banking, Investment Solutions and Corporate and Investment Banking.

HSBC France was founded as a result of merger of the Crédit Commercial de France, the Union Bank in Paris, the Hervet Bank in Paris, the Banque de Picardie and Bank Baecque. Today, its head office is located in Paris on the Champs Elysees avenue in an old hotel building.

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).

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.

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.

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.