Groupe BPCE

Groupe BPCE is a French banking group formed by the 2009 merger of CNCE (Caisse nationale des caisses d'épargne) and BFBP (Banque fédérale des banques populaires). It is France's fourth largest bank, the seventh largest in Europe and the nineteenth in the world by total assets. It has more than 8,200 branches nationwide under their respective brand names serving nearly 70 million customers. Through its subsidiaries (including Natixis), it provides banking, financial, and real estate financing services to individuals, professionals, small and medium enterprises, large enterprises, and institutions in France and internationally. It is considered a systemically important bank by the Financial Stability Board.

It provides various deposit and loan products to small and medium enterprises, craftspeople, franchisees, and franchisers; savings collection and management, credit, payment, and wealth management services; and real estate financing and corporate banking services. The company also offers bancassurance products, including life assurance and pensions that comprise automobile and home insurance, legal protection, the guarantee of life accidents, the supplementary health care insurance, welfare professionals and the collective retirement pensions and health, as well as credit insurance and guarantees to individuals, professionals, real estate professionals, and businesses.

In July 2016, the group announced the purchase of Fidor Bank, a Fintech challenger bank, operating in the UK and Germany; in November 2018 it began work on selling it again.

The current CEO of Groupe BPCE is Laurent Mignon.

Financial highlights as of June 2010

Tier-1 capital: €41 billion

Tier-1 ratio: 9.6%

Total assets: €1,124 billion

Banque Populaire and Caisse d'épargne networks

Loans outstanding: €288 billion

Saving deposits: €511 billion

Controversy

In 2010 the French government's Autorité de la concurrence (the department in charge of regulating competition) fined eleven banks, including Groupe BPCE, the sum of 384,900,000 Euros for colluding to charge unjustified fees on cheque processing, especially for extra fees charged during the transition from paper cheque transfer to "Exchanges Check-Image" electronic transfer.