Bank of Indochina

Headquarters building in Paris (completed 1922), 96 boulevard Haussmann
Native name	Banque de l'Indochine
Industry	financial service activities, except insurance and pension funding
Predecessor	Banque Industrielle de Chine
Founded	21 January 1875
Defunct	1975
Successor	Banque Indosuez

TheBanque de l'Indochine (French:[bɑ̃kdəlɛ̃dɔʃin]), originallyBanque de l'Indo-Chine ("Bank ofIndochina"), was a bank created in 1875 in Paris to finance French colonial development in Asia. As a bank of issue in Indochina until 1952 (and in French Pacific territories until 1967),^[1] with many features of acentral bank, it played a major role in the financial history ofFrench Indochina,French India,New Caledonia,French Polynesia, andDjibouti, as well as French-backed ventures inChina andSiam. AfterWorld War II, it lost its issuance privilege but reinvented itself as aninvestment bank in France, and developed new ventures in other countries, such asSaudi Arabia andSouth Africa.

TheCompagnie Financière de Suez acquired a controlling interest in the Banque de l'Indochine in 1972, then merged it in 1975 with its own banking subsidiary to formBanque Indosuez, since 1996 itself part of theCrédit Agricole universal banking group.

Following the early phases of theFrench conquest of Vietnam, theComptoir d'escompte de Paris (CEP) in 1864 opened offices inFrench Cochinchina, and also developed a presence inPondicherry,Calcutta,Bombay,Shanghai,Hong Kong, andYokohama. Meanwhile, the rivalCrédit Industriel et Commercial (CIC) had become the Paris correspondent of theHong Kong and Shanghai Bank, and had powerful political backers in the conservative Catholic administration under France's PresidentPatrice de MacMahon. In the early 1870s, both banks developed competing projects to create an institution that would receive the privilege ofissuing money inFrench Indochina.^[2]

In October 1874, the CEP, together with its allies, the Hentsch-Lütscher,Hoskier, andPaccard & Mirabaud merchant banks and the newly createdBanque de Paris et des Pays-Bas (BPPB), reached an agreement with the CIC to create the Banque de l'Indochine as ajoint venture. On the face of it, CEP and CIC, with their respective allies (including for the CIC theSociété Marseillaise de Crédit and theBanque franco-égyptienne [fr]), controlled equal blocks of shares in the new institution, but CEP was the dominant partner.^[3]Édouard Hentsch [fr], the CEP's Chairman and board member of the BPPB, was the new venture's founding chairman, and its foundingdirecteur (general manager) was the CEP'sdirecteur Pierre Girod.^[2] The Banque de l'Indochine was formally established by presidential decree on 21 January 1875, with privilege to issue banknotes (initially inFrench franc and from 1885 inFrench Indochinese piastre) backed by itsbullion reserves.^[4] At its creation, it took ownership of the CEP's former branches inSaigon andPondicherry.^[2] The bank outsourced the production of coins to theMonnaie de Paris^[5] and of notes to theBank of France.^[6]

The first banknotes, printed in Paris by theBank of France for the Banque de l'Indochine, arrived inSaigon on 8 January 1876, nearly a year after the bank's creation. They were quickly adopted by ethnic-Chinese traders in and around Saigon, who were familiar with banknotes from experience in Hong Kong or Singapore. Even so, the bank's first years of activity were marked by occasional bouts of monetary instability.^[7]

Following theTreaty of Tientsin (1885) that concluded theSino-French War, France consolidated its colonial rule northwards overAnnam andTonkin. Competitors of the CEP, and especially theSociété Générale, feared the Banque de l'Indochine would monopolize credit and banking activity in the expanded territory. The French government, whose moderate Republican orientation was supported by the CEP against the more conservative Société Générale, leveraged that situation to encourage the Banque de l'Indochine to increase its credit provision and provide more support to Indochina's economy. A compromise was found in 1887 under which the Société Générale would join the Banque de l'Indochine as a minority shareholder, through a capital increase that was closed on 15 July 1888 and resulted in a 15.5 percent stake for Société Générale.^[8] Meanwhile, the bank's issuance privilege was extended to Annam and Tonkin in February 1888, as well as toNew Caledonia. Following that restructuring, the CEP controlled four of the board's eleven seats, CIC three, and Société Générale and the BPPB one each. The CEP's influence was eclipsed following its collapse in 1889, but it came back as theComptoir national d'escompte de Paris (CNEP) with one board member in 1890 and retook the Banque de l'Indochine's chairmanship in 1892. From that date, the Banque de l'Indochine effectively became a joint vehicle ("établissement de place") for the Paris banking community's activities in the Indo-Pacific. That evolution was completed in 1896 as theCrédit Lyonnais, which had expanded into Egypt and India, entered the Bank de l'Indochine's capital and board.^[2] The Banque de l'Indochine increasingly behaved as an autonomous actor, shedding its former identity as "daughter of the CEP".^[3] The fact that French banks acted together in a single venture, as opposed to competing with each other for banking business in Indochina, may be attributed to the need to face regional rivalry from the powerful British banks such as the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, and also by the intrinsic advantage that the bank of issue privilege conferred to its holder against any upstart.^[7]

The bank opened branches (French:succursales) inHaiphong inTonkin on 1 April 1885 and, at the French government's request formalized in a decree of 20 February 1888,^[6] inNouméa,New Caledonia on 17 September 1888,^[7] and inPapeete,French Polynesia on 5 December 1905.^[9][10] It opened offices (French:agences) inHanoi on 17 January 1887,^[6]Phnom Penh on 22 February 1891,Tourane inAnnam (nowDa Nang) in August 1891,^[11]Hong Kong on 1 July 1894 (taking over the former office of the CNEP),^[2][12]Bangkok in February 1897,^[6]Shanghai in July 1898,^[13]Canton andHankou (now part ofWuhan) on 1 March 1902,^[14]Battambang (then inSiam) in August 1902,Singapore on 1 March 1905,Tianjin on 18 February 1907,Beijing in July 1907,^[6][15] and Yunnan-Fu (nowKunming) in 1910.^[16]

On 13 August 1891, for the first time, the Banque de l'Indochine printed its own piastre banknotes at a new facility in Saigon.^[17] In 1898, it issued the first banknotes denominated inFrench Indian rupees.^[18]

In 1900, the bank's Shanghai office participated in the financing of the French contribution to the international expeditionary corps that suppressed theBoxer Rebellion,^[19] and subsequently represented the interests of the French government in handling theBoxer indemnity.^{[citation needed]} The Banque de l'Indochine invested in a number of colonial ventures such as theSociété de construction des Chemins de fer Indochinois [fr] and theChemins de fer de l'Indochine et du Yunnan,^[9] for which the French government asked it to open an office in Mongtze (nowMengzi) in 1914.^[20] It repeatedly entered new territories at the request of the French government. In July 1908, it thus established an office inDjibouti to co-finance theCompagnie du Chemin de fer de Djibouti à Addis-Abeba,^[6] the first-ever bank in the city.^[21][22] In 1918, it opened an office inVladivostok to serve the Allied military base there during theSiberian intervention.^[23]

In July 1921, theBanque Industrielle de Chine (BIDC), which had been created in 1913 to compete with the Banque de l'Indochine for the financing of French ventures in Shanghai and elsewhere in China, collapsed despite the backing it had received from the French Foreign Ministry and the BPPB. The latter acquired the BIDC's sounder assets, and the rest was managed by the Banque de l'Indochine as abad bank, theSociété française de gérance de la BIDC, and eventually restructured in 1925 as theFranco-Chinese Bank (BFC). The Banque de l'Indochine remained a significant stakeholder of the BFC, together with the BPPB and theBanque Nationale de Crédit [fr].^[2]

In the 1920s the Banque de l'Indochine participated in more colonial ventures, such as theCrédit Foncier de l'Indochine, theCompagnie Francaise de Tramways et d'Eclairage Electrique de Shanghai,^[24] and theSociété Le Nickel inNew Caledonia. It opened an office in Fort-Bayard (nowZhanjiang) in the FrenchLeased Territory of Guangzhouwan on 23 February 1925,^[25] and offices inCần Thơ andNam Định in 1926.^[26] In 1930, in coordination with the French government, the Banque de l'Indochine took theFrench Indochinese piastre off thesilver standard (which it had upheld until then, alone with China which in turn abandoned it in 1935) and into thegold standard.^[27] In 1936, the piastre was taken off the gold standard, together with the French franc to which it was kept convertible at a rate of 10 francs for 1 piastre.^[28]

Throughout the 1920s, the French Parliament extended the Banque de l'Indochine's issuance privilege only for short periods of time, from 1920 to 1925 on an annual basis, and then every semester, in contrast to earlier long-term extensions.^[29] The Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas, which by then had become the Banque de l'Indochine's major competitor, provided covert funding to advocacy efforts against further extension.^[30] On 31 March 1931, new French legislation eventually extended the bank's issuance privilege by 25 years, against which the French state participated in a capital increase and subsequently held 20 percent of the bank's equity capital as well as extensive rights in its governance. These included six board memberships and the selection of the board chair.^[2] The French government initially keptRené Jules Thion de la Chaume, a traditional banker, as chairman of the Banque de l'Indochine, but in 1936 replaced him with a lifetime civil servant, Marcel Borduge.^[31]

Also in 1931, the Banque de l'Indochine participated in the establishment of theBank for International Settlements inBasel, and in a capital increase of theState Bank of Morocco, despite the latter being under the BPPB's dominant influence.^[32]

DuringWorld War II, the Banque de l'Indochine was chaired byPaul Baudoin, who in the summer of 1940 was the first Foreign Minister ofVichy France. In 1941, the Banque de l'Indochine was allowed to acquire an equity stake in its rival the Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas.^[33] The chief executive,Jean Laurent [fr], in contrast to Baudoin, was involved in theFrench Resistance. Largely thanks to him, the bank avoided participation in the worst aspects ofcollaboration while providing some support to the Resistance. In August 1944, its Paris headquarters was the venue for the negotiation between Swedish diplomatRaoul Nordling and German commanderDietrich von Choltitz to limit bloodshed during theLiberation of Paris.^[34] The Banque de l'Indochine, like the BPPB, was subsequently able to escapenationalization following theliberation of France, even though Baudoin was sentenced toIndignité nationale.^[35]

In 1940 the bank established offices inLondon andYokohama,^[36] and in November 1942 relocated the latter toTokyo^[37] until it closed in September 1945. Under Japanese occupation, the bank's offices in Hong Kong and Singapore ceased activity in early 1942, and those in China were reduced to near-complete paralysis.^[33] InPondicherry, the news of thearmistice of 22 June 1940 were met with panic and triggered abank run on the Banque de l'Indochine. This in turn played a role in the decision byLouis Bonvin, Governor ofFrench India, to reverse his prior allegiance toVichy France and rally toFree France, which allowed the bank to receive financial support from theBritish Raj.^[38]

The future of the Banque de l'Indochine was vividly debated in the new political context created by theliberation of France. In 1945, the French government decided to revalue theFrench Indochinese piastre to a rate of 17 French francs to one piastre, up from 10, a decision that initiated a bout of trafficking and corruption that would become known as thepiastres affair (French:scandale des piastres); that same year, theCFP franc replaced the piastre as the currency of French Polynesia and New Caledonia. In 1947, following protracted negotiations, the Banque de l'Indochine approved the decision to buy back the French government's 20 percent equity stake, despite a steep price imposed by Finance MinisterMaurice Schumann. Its issuance privilege was revoked in principle by a law of 25 September 1948, but was kept in practice until March 1949 in Djibouti (replaced by direct issuance by the Treasury^[39]: 10), December 1951 in Indochina (replaced by theInstitut d'Émission des États du Cambodge, du Laos et du Viet-nam), and March 1967 in French Polynesia and New Caledonia (replaced by theInstitut d'Émission d'Outre-Mer). Meanwhile, the Banque de l'Indochine developed its activity, as an increasingly active investment bank in France, and a retail and commercial bank internationally, both in the colonies rebranded asFrench Union and in other countries, such asSouth Africa.^{[3]: 456–458}

The bank's activities in mainland China were partly revived after the defeat of Japan in 1945 (as were the offices in Hong Kong and Singapore), kept for a while after the Communist victory of theChinese Civil War in 1949,^[40] but eventually liquidated in the 1950s. Meanwhile, the bank endeavored to diversify away from its traditional colonial turf. In 1946 it established itself inAddis Ababa (Ethiopia), where it stayed until 1963, and for a few years in the early 1950s also inDire Dawa. InSaudi Arabia, it opened a branch inJeddah in 1947,^[41] followed byDammam andKhobar-Dhahran in the 1950s. It was also briefly established inAl Hudaydah,Yemen ca. 1949–1951. It created subsidiaries inSan Francisco (French American Banking Corporation) in 1947 andJohannesburg (French Bank of South Africa) in 1949.^[40] In theNew Hebrides, nowVanuatu, it established a branch inPort Vila in 1948, and an office inLuganville in the 1950s. It also opened locations in Malaysia in 1951, Tokyo (again) in 1953,^[41] andLausanne in 1957.^[42]

Even so, Indochina still represented more than half of the bank's income in the early 1950s.^[43] In 1953, the bank opened a branch inVientiane,Laos. Following the French loss ofNorth Vietnam following the1954 Geneva Conference, it had to close its branches inHanoi on 31 August 1954, inHaiphong on 31 March 1955, inCần Thơ on 30 April 1955, and inDa Lat andDa Nang on 30 June 1955.^[44] On 20 October 1955, the Banque de l'Indochine sold several of its properties, including its main office building inSaigon, to theNational Bank of Vietnam, the central bank of the newly establishedRepublic of Vietnam. It reorganized its remaining activities in Indochina as a Saigon-based subsidiary, theBanque française de l'Asie.^[45]

In 1954–1955, the Banque de l'Indochine also ceased its activity in Pondicherry following thede facto end ofFrench India; its branch was acquired byIndian Overseas Bank.^[46] In 1963, its activity inCambodia was nationalized.

By the early 1950s, the Banque de l'Indochine also had a broad network of minority stakes in other banks, including theBanque de Paris et des Pays-Bas (acquired in 1941),Crédit Foncier d'Algérie et de Tunisie, Banque industrielle de l'Afrique du Nord (Algeria), Banque commerciale africaine (West and Central Africa), Bank Sabbag (Lebanon), andFranco-Chinese Bank, among others.^[43] In 1960, it took over theFranco-Chinese Bank by purchasing the shares formerly held by Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas andBanque Lazard. In 1973, it converted its branches in French Polynesia into a subsidiary, theBanque de Polynésie [no].

In 1966, to prevent an outright takeover of military-industrial concernSchneider by Belgium'sEmpain group, the Banque de l'Indochine acquired 10 percent of Schneider's capital. As a consequence of that transaction, Empain took 11 percent of the bank's own capital. Its chairmanFrançois de Flers [fr] then attempted to counter Empain's influence in the bank (as the rest of the shareholder base was highly dispersed) by inviting theCompagnie Financière de Suez, with which the bank had several common business interests, to invest in it as well. In January 1967, Suez acquired 7 percent of the bank's capital, the same amount as held by Empain by then. De Flers subsequently invited La Paternelle, an insurer, to acquire a further 4 percent of the bank's capital, thus consolidating a group of friendly shareholders. In late 1969, the Assurances du groupe de Paris (AGP), a holding company that had been formed in the meantime and owned La Paternelle, owned 22 percent of the Banque de l'Indochine,^{[3]: 540–544} and by 1972, 45 percent. That year, AGP sold its stake to theCompagnie Financière de Suez. In 1975, the latter merged the Banque de l'Indochine with its subsidiary the Banque de Suez et de l'Union des Mines, to formBanque Indosuez.^[41]

The Banque de l'Indochine used or commissioned a number of prominent buildings, some of which are notable exemplars ofFrench colonial architecture.

Originally, the bank was established at 34,rue Laffitte, in a building that was later demolished.^[47] In July 1902, it moved to a new headquarter building nearby on 15 bis, rue Laffitte, designed byHenri Paul Nénot and whose exterior still survives.^[48]

In March 1922, the bank moved to a new and larger building started in 1913 but whose construction was interrupted byWorld War I,^[49] on 96boulevard Haussmann, designed by architect René Patouillard-Demoriane. That building remained the seat ofBanque Indosuez until the late 1990s. It was largely rebuilt behind the preserved original façade in the mid-2000s, on a design by Jean-Jacques Ory.^[50]

The bank's seat ofSaigon, its original and main hub of activity in Asia, was located onQuai de Belgique (nowBến Chương Dương [vi]) on the banks of theRạch Bến Nghé [vi] canal, just east of its confluence with theBến Nghé River. Its latest reconstruction on the same site, by theSociété d'Exploitation des Établissements Brossard et Mopin using granite fromBiên Hòa, was completed in late 1930 and inaugurated in 1931.^[51] It was designed in ostentatious neoclassical style by architectFélix Dumail [fr], with some exterior details inspired byCham andKhmer architecture, and a largeart deco atrium.

That building was sold and transferred in 1955 to theNational Bank of Vietnam, theRepublic of Vietnam's new central bank, and in July 1976 was taken over by theState Bank of Vietnam following theFall of Saigon. In 2016, the Vietnamese authorities added the building to the list of protected national relics.^[17]

From 1955 to 1975 theBanque française de l'Asie, South-Vietnamese subsidiary of the Banque de l'Indochine, had its Saigon seat in the former building of the Diethelm group, also on theQuai de Belgique.^[52]

The bank'sHanoi office was opened in 1887, and in 1901 moved to a larger building onboulevard Amiral-Courbet facing theSquare Paul-Bert, nowVườn hoa Chí Linh [vi] on the eastern side ofHoàn Kiếm Lake.^[53] It was again relocated in late 1930 to a new and ornateart deco building nearby at the eastern end of the square, built in pink concrete by Aviat, a local contractor, and designed byFélix Dumail [fr] andGeorges Trouvé [fr]. The new building was ceremonially inaugurated on 30 March 1931 by actinggovernor-general Eugène Robin.^[54] The previous seat was converted into housing for the bank's employees.^[55] In 1954, the Hanoi branch was taken over by the National Bank of Vietnam (Ngân hàng Quốc gia Việt Nam, renamed theState Bank of Vietnam in 1960) and has been the central bank's head office since then.

TheHaiphong branch office, established in 1885, was replaced with a new building designed by architect Collet and inaugurated on 19 October 1925.^[56] It has been used by theState Bank of Vietnam since 1955.

TheNam Định office was established in 1926 in a provisional location, and moved to a permanent building inaugurated on 13 May 1929, designed byFélix Dumail [fr], that is still in use by the State Bank of Vietnam.^[57]

The office of the Banque de l'Indochine inPhnom Penh was built in the early 1890s and rebuilt in the early 20th century. In 1965, Cambodian industrialist Van Thuan acquired it and made it the headquarters of his enterprises. He relocated in Hong Kong in 1969, and his Cambodian properties were expropriated in 1975 by theKhmer Rouge regime. The building was then taken over by theNational Bank of Cambodia. In 2003, Van Thuan's family bought back the building from the Cambodian authorities and subsequently renovated it. His daughter Van Porleng opened a French fine dining restaurant there, branded Van's, in December 2007.^[58]

• 
  Old seat of the bank in Saigon (now demolished), late 19th or early 20th century
• 
  The Saigon bank's building at night, withBitexco Financial Tower in background
• 
  Rear view of the Saigon building
• 
  Aerial view of the Saigon bank building (bottom center) and the Rạch Bến Nghé canal
• 
  Drawing by Félix Dumail for the bank's new building in Hanoi
• 
  The Nam Dinh office shortly after completion

The branch building inBangkok, inBang Rak district, was completed in 1908.^[21] It was constructed by the engineering firmHowarth Erskine, and formed an imposing neoclassical edifice on the bank of theChao Phraya River. It stands next to theEast Asiatic Building at the end ofSoi Charoen Krung 40, and now houses offices of theRoman Catholic Archdiocese of Bangkok.^[59][60]

The bank's building inShanghai, on No.29Bund, was completed in 1914 on a design by the local Atkinson & Dallas architecture firm. It is now the Shanghai Bund (Waitan) subbranch ofChina Everbright Bank.^[61][62]

The polychrome brick building of the Banque de l'Indochine in theFrench concession of Hankou, on the "French Bund" embankment of theYangtze river, was constructed in 1901–1902 and has been carefully restored.

In theLegation Quarter ofBeijing, the bank acquired the former building of the short-lived legation of theKorean Empire, which had closed in 1905,^[63] and established its office there in 1908.^[21] It rebuilt the office in Western classical style in 1917, on the same location.^[64]

The bank's building in the Frenchconcession of Tianjin was completed in late 1908.^[21] The Banque de l'Indochine kept staff there until the second half of the 1950s. It was later used as a venue by the Tianjin Fine Arts Museum.^[65]

• 
  Prince's Building, where the Banque de l'Indochine had its office inHong Kong
• 
  The bank's building onShamian Island inCanton, 1908
• 
  The Hankou office in 1911

The bank's branch inPondicherry was rebuilt in 1916 on the south side of the city's centralBharati Park. It is now the local office ofUCO Bank.^[66]

The bank's main branch inFrench Polynesia has been located on the same site, just south ofPapeete'sNotre Dame Cathedral, since its establishment in 1904. It has been rebuilt on several occasions.^[67]

In 1908, architect Faucon designed a building in traditional Yemeni style for the bank onBoulevard Bonhoure. In 1954, the bank relocated to a new international style office, which it had built on the site of the formerHotel de France nearby on 10,Place Lagarde.^[68] This building was later used and remodeled by theBanque pour le Commerce et l'Industrie – Mer Rouge, which in June 2020 sold it to Djibouti's National Social Security Fund (French:Caisse Nationale de Sécurité Sociale).^[69]

The bank's two key leadership positions were that of chairman (French:président) and chief executive or general manager (French:directeur). The latter was also often a member of the board (French:conseil d'administration), in which case he held the title ofadministrateur délégué.

• Édouard Hentsch [fr] (January 1875-March 1889)
• Charles Sautter [fr] (March 1889-April 1892)
• Ernest Denormandie (June 1892-late 1889 or early 1900)
• Jean Hély d'Oissel [fr] (late 1889 or early 1900-June 1920)
• Albert Guillemin de Monplanet [fr] (June 1920-March 1927)
• Stanislas Simon (May 1927-July 1931)

Interim (July 1931-July 1932)

• René Jules Thion de la Chaume (July 1932-November 1936)
• Marcel Borduge (November 1936-February 1941)
• Paul Baudoin (February 1941-September 1944)
• Emile Minost (April 1945 – 1960)
• François de Flers [fr] (1960-1974)
• Jean Maxime-Robert (1974-1975)

• Pierre Girod (January 1875-March 1889), also board member andadministrateur délégué from the bank's creation
• Stanislas Simon (March 1889-June 1920), also board member andadministrateur délégué from May 1909, and chairman in 1927
• René Jules Thion de la Chaume (June 1920-July 1931), also board member from June 1930,administrateur délégué in 1931, and chairman in 1932
• Paul Baudoin (July 1931-March 1940), also board member from November 1936, and chairman in 1941
• Jean Laurent [fr] (March 1940-September 1952)
• François de Flers [fr] (October 1952 – 1960)
• Jean Maxime-Robert (1960-1974)

In addition to its issuance privilege in French colonies, the Banque de l’Indochine, like other foreign banks in China at the time, issuedpaper currency in theconcessions where it had established branch offices.

• 
  20 piastres (Indochina), 1898
• 
  1 dollar/piastre (Canton), 1901
• 
  100 dollars/piastres (Canton), 1901
• 
  1 dollar/piastre (Canton), 1902
• 
  1 dollar/piastre (Canton), 1902
• 
  5 dollars/piastres (Canton), 1902
• 
  5 dollars/piastres (Canton), 1902
• 
  10 dollars/piastres (Canton), 1902
• 
  10 dollars/piastres (Canton), 1902
• 
  1 piastre (Indochina), 1930s
• 
  100 piastres (Indochina), 1932
• 
  1 rupee (Pondicherry), late 1930s
• 
  50 rupees (Pondicherry), early 1940s
• 
  1 piastre (Indochina), 1942-1945
• 
  5 Francs (Djibouti), 1943
• 
  1 piastre (Indochina), 1951

• Paper money of the Qing dynasty
• Cambodian franc
• Imperial Ottoman Bank
• National Bank of Haiti
• Banque de l'Afrique Occidentale
• State Bank of Morocco
• Banque de Madagascar
• Société financière française et coloniale

• Documents and clippings about Banque de l'Indochine in the20th Century Press Archives of theZBW

• Defunct banks of France
• Banks based in Paris
• French colonisation in Asia
• French Indochina
• Concessions in China
• History of French Polynesia
• History of New Caledonia
• Economic history of Djibouti
• French India
• Economic history of Paris
• French companies established in 1875
• Former central banks and banks of issue

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