Crédit Commercial de France
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The ''Crédit Commercial de France'' (CCF, "Commercial Credit ompanyof France") is a
commercial bank A commercial bank is a financial institution which accepts deposits from the public and gives loans for the purposes of consumption and investment to make profit. It can also refer to a bank, or a division of a large bank, which deals with co ...
in
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
, founded in 1894 as the ''Banque Suisse et Française'' and renamed to CCF in 1917. By the end of the 1920s, it had grown to be the sixth largest bank in France. Its brand was eclipsed between 2005 and 2022 under HSBC ownership, but is set to be revived by the bank's new owner
Cerberus Capital Management Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. is an American private equity firm,Leaders Magazine"Providing Economic Opportunity: An Interview with The Honorable Dan Quayle, Chairman, Cerberus Global Investments, LLC". specializing in distressed investing. ...
.


History


Banque Suisse et Française

Financiers Ernest Méjà and Benjamin Rossier founded the (BSF, "Swiss and French Bank") at 27, rue Laffite in Paris, on . They had previously worked together for the Swiss , whose Paris branch formed the initial core of the new venture. Méjà remained as joint
managing director A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
of the bank with Rossier until his death in 1910. Rossier then continued to run the bank until his retirement in 1936. From its early days, the BSF took an active interest in
commerce Commerce is the large-scale organized system of activities, functions, procedures and institutions directly and indirectly related to the exchange (buying and selling) of goods and services among two or more parties within local, regional, nation ...
and
industry Industry may refer to: Economics * Industry (economics), a generally categorized branch of economic activity * Industry (manufacturing), a specific branch of economic activity, typically in factories with machinery * The wider industrial sector ...
. A successful working relationship was developed with the Paris
department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...
Galeries Lafayette The Galeries Lafayette () is an upmarket French department store chain, the biggest in Europe. Its flagship store is on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris but it now operates in a number of other locations in France and oth ...
. The bank also helped fund the construction of the new
Paris Métro The Paris Métro (french: Métro de Paris ; short for Métropolitain ) is a rapid transit system in the Paris metropolitan area, France. A symbol of the city, it is known for its density within the capital's territorial limits, uniform architec ...
and the installation of public lighting in the capital. The early success of the business led to considerable expansion. The number of employees rose tenfold by the turn of the century. From 1912, the bank began to develop a branch network, with 14 offices opening in Paris and a first provincial office in
Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the N ...
. An office was also acquired in
Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...
when the business of that city's was taken over in 1914.


Crédit Commercial de France

In January 1917, the BSF’s shareholders approved a proposed merger with two regional banks, in
Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...
and . Aynard had started out as a drapers’ company in the early 18th century, before turning to banking in 1858. Established in 1865, Caisse de Crédit de Nice had opened a number of branches along the French Riviera and in
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
. The merged entity adopted the name . Two years later, it acquired the business of . It went on to purchase other banks and, by the end of the 1920s, had become the sixth largest bank in France. In the 1960s, during the chairmanship of Jacques Merlin, CCF embarked upon a policy of further expansion, with the number of branches rising to more than 200. The bank's industrial affairs department and international department were also founded during this period. In 1979, it launched a long-running
advertising campaign An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication (IMC). An IMC is a platform in which a group of people can group their ideas, beliefs, and conc ...
under the motto "The Bank of success", which boosted the number of
shareholders A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal ow ...
from 17,000 to 34,000. In 1982, the CCF was nationalised by the
French government The Government of France (French: ''Gouvernement français''), officially the Government of the French Republic (''Gouvernement de la République française'' ), exercises executive power in France. It is composed of the Prime Minister, who i ...
. In 1987, following a change of political majority, the CCF was
privatised Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...
again. CCF also acquired in the 1980s. By the end of the 20th century, CCF was operating with 650
branches A branch, sometimes called a ramus in botany, is a woody structural member connected to the central trunk of a tree (or sometimes a shrub). Large branches are known as boughs and small branches are known as twigs. The term ''twig'' usually r ...
and
assets In financial accounting, an asset is any resource owned or controlled by a business or an economic entity. It is anything (tangible or intangible) that can be used to produce positive economic value. Assets represent value of ownership that can ...
of €69 billion.


Integration into HSBC

In April 2000, HSBC announced its intention to acquire the CCF and the transaction was completed in July. That month, HSBC Holdings plc was listed on the Paris Stock Exchange for the first time. Under HSBC ownership, CCF continued to expand with the purchase of Banque Pelletier in 2000 and in 2001. CCF was rebranded HSBC France on , thus phasing out its own brand as well as the group's other remaining brands including , Banque de Picardie, Banque de Baecque Beau, and Banque Hervet.


Brand revival under new ownership

In June 2021, private equity investors
Cerberus Capital Management Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. is an American private equity firm,Leaders Magazine"Providing Economic Opportunity: An Interview with The Honorable Dan Quayle, Chairman, Cerberus Global Investments, LLC". specializing in distressed investing. ...
announced their plan to acquire
HSBC Continental Europe HSBC Continental Europe (formerly HSBC France SA) is a subsidiary of HSBC, headquartered in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. History It was formed on 1 November 2005 when HSBC rebranded CCF S.A. (Crédit Commercial de France), together with i ...
's French retail operations together with the CCF brand, and merge them with their existing French bank , aiming to "build on CCF's legacy and re-establish the brand as a leading franchise for wealth management customers in France."


Leadership

The following individuals were Chair (or Chair & CEO) of the BSF, then CCF until absorption by HSBC: * Alexandre Halet: 1894-1902 * Théodore Faverger: 1902-1904 * Adolphe Salles: 1904-1924 *
Maurice Koechlin Maurice Koechlin (8 March 1856 – 14 January 1946) was a Franco- Swiss structural engineer from the Koechlin family. Life A member of the renowned Alsatian Koechlin family, he was born in Buhl, Haut-Rhin, the son of Jean Koechlin and hi ...
: 1925-1926 * Georges Siegfried: 1926-1940 * Jean Davillier: 1940-1941 *
Georges Painvin Georges Jean Painvin (; 28 January 1886 – 21 January 1980) was a French geologist and industrialist, best known as the cryptanalyst who broke the ADFGX/ADFGVX cipher used by the Germans during the First World War. Early life Painvin was born ...
: 1941-1944 * Jean Davillier: 1944-1958 * Raymond Merckling: 1958-1960 * Jacques Merlin: 1961-1976 * : 1976-1982 * Guy Raoul-Duval: 1982 * Daniel Deguen: 1982-1984 * Claude Jouven: 1984-1985 * : 1985-1987 * Michel Pébereau: 1987-1993 * Charles de Croisset: 1993-2004 * : 2004-2005


Paris head office

The BSF started activity in rented offices at 27, rue Laffitte, in a new (1891) building on the former location of
Jacques Laffitte Jacques Laffitte (24 October 1767 – 26 May 1844) was a leading French banker, governor of the Bank of France (1814–1820) and liberal member of the Chamber of Deputies during the Bourbon Restoration and July Monarchy. He was an important figu ...
's mansion, next door to the Paris head office of the Rothschild family bank at numbers 19-25. It then commissioned a new head office at 20, rue Lafayette, designed by architects and , and completed in 1908. In 2009, that building was remodeled by Spanish entrepreneur as the . In 1922, the CCF moved its head office to the prominent building at 103, Champs-Elysées, previously the designed by architect , built by the Compagnie Internationale des Grands Hotels and opened on ahead of the Exposition Universelle of 1900. The luxury hotel had closed in the financial turmoil following
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. The CCF, then HSBC France stayed there until 2020. It was then announced that the property, owned by
Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it ...
since 2010, would be repurposed to become the Parisian flagship store of Christian Dior.


See also

* Banque nationale pour le commerce et l'industrie *
Société Générale Société Générale S.A. (), colloquially known in English as SocGen (), is a French-based multinational financial services company founded in 1864, registered in downtown Paris and headquartered nearby in La Défense. Société Générale ...


References


Notes


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Credit Commercial de France HSBC acquisitions Banks established in 1858 Banks disestablished in 2000 1894 establishments in France Banks of France