Groupe Caisse d'Épargne industry financial services
Groupe Caisse d'épargne was a French cooperative banking group, with around, 4700 branches in the country. Its origins go back to the founding in 1818 of the Caisse d'Épargne et de Prévoyance de Paris, France's first savings bank. The group was active in retail and private banking, 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.History
The first French savings bank (French: Caisse d'Épargne) 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 Duke of La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, James Mayer de Rothschild, and Vital Roux.
The Caisses d'Épargne were not banks, since they were not allowed to lend. The deposits they collected were invested in government bonds, from 1895 via centralized management by the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, a financial arm of the French state.: 29  From 1882 they competed with the Caisse Nationale d'Épargne, a state-owned entity that managed retail savings collected through the French network of post offices. By contrast with the Caisse Nationale, the local Caisses d'Épargne (also known in that context as Caisses ordinaires) were private-sector entities.: 28 In October 2008 Groupe Caisse d'épargne announced plans to merge with fellow mutual Groupe Banque Populaire, in response to recent consolidation in the banking industry. Press agency AFP linked the announcement directly to the ongoing financial crisis of 2007–2008. The companies intend however to retain their separate retail banking brands and branch networks. If the merger is completed, the enlarged company, would hold €480 billion in deposits and have over six million customers.Groupe Caisse d'épargne merged with the BFBP (Banque fédérale des banques populaires) in July 2009, and became BPCE, France's second-largest bank.
sector field business trade commerce