Groupe Banque Populaire

Building at 115, rue Montmartre in Paris, former head office of Caisse Centrale des Banques Populaires built in the 1950s[1]
Company type	co-operative
Industry	Banking
Founded	1878
Defunct	31 July 2009
Fate	Merger withGroupe Caisse d'Épargne
Successor	Groupe BPCE
Headquarters	Paris , France
Number of employees	34,500
Website	www.banquepopulaire.fr

Banque Populaire (French pronunciation:[ɡʁupbɑ̃kpɔpylɛʁ],lit. 'People's Bank') was a French group ofcooperative banks, with origins in theEuropean cooperative movement. In 2009, it merged withGroupe Caisse d'Épargne to formGroupe BPCE.

Groupe Banque Populaire started in 1878 with the foundation of the first local "people's bank" (French:banque populaire) in the western French city ofAngers.^[2] DuringWorld War I,Commerce MinisterÉtienne Clémentel was instrumental in passing the law of 13 March 1917 which established the local Popular Banks' cooperative status and granted them favorable financial and tax treatment, with intent to fill the void left by struggling local banks in the market for short-term lending to small businesses.^[3] In 1921, the Caisse centrale des Banques populaires (CCBP) was created.^[4]

In 1919, the French state sponsored the creation ofCrédit National, a specialized bank. In 1946, the French state createdCompagnie Française d'Assurance pour le Commerce Extérieur (Coface), atrade credit insurer, andBanque Française du Commerce Extérieur (BFCE), a specialized bank providing export financing services. In 1974, the Social Assistance Bank of theNational Education Ministry (French:Caisse d'aide sociale de l'Éducation nationale, CASDEN) joined the Banque Populaire network, later rebranding asCASDEN Banque populaire [fr]. In 1996, Crédit National purchased BFCE, and the merged entity renamed itself asNatexis, in whichnatex is aportmanteau ofnational andextérieur.

The CCBP purchased Natexis in 1998, and renamed it Natexis Banques Populaires. In 1999, the CCBP was replaced by a new banking entity, theBanque fédérale des banques populaires [fr] (BFBP). Natexis Banques Populaires purchased Coface in 2002. That same year, cooperative bank theCrédit coopératif [fr] joined the Banque Populaire network.

By the mid-2000s the central entity BFBP was controlled by 15 independent regional banks and also operated CASDEN and Crédit Coopératif as subsidiaries. In 2006, Groupe Banque Populaire and fellow mutualGroupe Caisse d'Épargne agreed to merge their commercial and investment banking subsidiaries, respectively Natexis Banques Populaires and Ixis. The new entity was named Natixis, aportmanteau of Natexis and Ixis. Natixis went through aninitial public offering on 25 October 2006, after which BFBP and CNCE (the central entity of Groupe Caisse d'Épargne) 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 in the context of the2008 financial crisis, including on investments intoBernie Madoff's funds. Key executives had to resign or were sacked:Nicolas Mérindol andCharles Milhaud [fr], respectively CEO and chairman of CNCE, on 19 October 2008;^[5]Bernard Comolet [fr] and Bruno Mettling, respectively chairman of Natixis and CEO of BFBP, on 6 March 2009;^[6] andDominique Ferrero [fr], CEO of Natexis, on 29 April 2009.^[7]

Partly because of the Natixis fiasco, in October 2008 Groupe Banque Populaire announced plans, since approved by theFrench government, to merge with Groupe Caisse d'Epargne.^[8] The companies merged in 2009 to form the Groupe BPCE^[9] and retain their separate retail banking brands andbranch networks. Banque Populaire'schief executive officer Philippe Dupont was selected to head the enlarged company.^[8]

In 2025, the Group reported having 9.7 million customers and 5 million member-shareholders, served by 12,425 advisors.^[10]

• 
  Entrance of the former head office of Caisse Centrale des Banques Populaires, 115 rue Montmartre
• 
  Former head office of Crédit National at 45–47, rue Saint-Dominique in Paris
• 
  Former head office of Banque Française du Commerce Extérieur at 21, boulevard Haussmann in Paris
• 
  Le Ponant building in Paris, former head office of Banque Fédérale des Banques Populaires
• 
  Head office of Natixis in 2007, near theGare de Lyon

The bank sponsors sailboats as part of the 'Transat Café L'Or' sporting event.^[11][12]

• Crédit Mutuel
• German Cooperative Financial Group
• KBC Group
• De Volksbank

Wikimedia Commons has media related toBanque Populaire.

• Groupe Banque Populaire Caisse d'Epargne
• Banque Populaire website (in french)

• Banks based in Paris
• Banks established in 1878
• French companies established in 1878
• BPCE

• CS1 French-language sources (fr)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Pages with French IPA
• Articles containing French-language text
• Commons category link is on Wikidata