The ''Caisse Générale de Reports et de Dépôts'' (CGRD, sometimes CGR&D) was a bank headquartered in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. Founded in 1874, its business was reorganized in 1940 under the new name ''Banque de Reports et de Dépôts'' (BRD). It was eventually absorbed in 1953 by the Banque Lambert.

Overview

The CGRD was established in 1874 and initially specialized in collateral loans to stockbrokers. ( refers to bank lending that enables leveraged securities trading.) In the early 20th century, the CGRD commissioned a prominent head office building in the downtown banking district of Brussels, designed by architect Paul Saintenoy and completed in 1911. In 1935, Belgian banker , a former general manager of the

Banque d'Outremer The ''Banque d'Outremer'' (), initially known as the ''Compagnie Internationale pour le Commerce et l'Industrie'' (CICI, ) was a Belgian financial institution, established in 1899 in the context of the exploitation of the Congo Free State, and ev ...

, became the CGRD's controlling shareholder by acquiring an equity stake previously held by the

Société Générale de Belgique The ' (, ; often referred to in Belgium simply as "Société Générale" or SGB) was an investment bank and, subsequently, an industrial and financial conglomerate in Belgium between 1822 and 2003. It has been described as the world's first u ...

as the latter spun off most of its banking operations as the

Générale de Banque The ''Générale de Banque'' () was a major Belgian bank, created in 1934 as a spin-off from the powerful financial conglomerate Société Générale de Belgique (SGB) in compliance with new Belgian legislation that mandated separation of commerci ...

. In 1939, a year after Fabri's death, the bank fell into financial distress, in a context of generally adverse conditions in Belgium and specifically linked with the failure of the

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

branch of Mendelssohn & Co., in which Fabri had made significant investments. Depositors were kept unharmed but the CGRD was liquidated In early 1940, while its business was transferred to a newly created entity, the Banque de Reports et de Dépôts. The new shareholders, namely the

Banque de Bruxelles The Bank of Brussels (, ) was a prominent bank in Brussels, established in 1871 and merged in 1975 with Banque Lambert to form Banque Bruxelles Lambert. It was Belgium's second-largest bank for most of its existence, behind the Société Géné ...

, and

Société Belge de Banque Groupe Lactalis S.A. (doing business as Lactalis) is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier S.A. Lactalis is the largest dairy pr ...

, together received 40 percent of the new entity's equity, while the former CGRD shareholders, including the Fabri family, retained 60 percent. In 1947, the BRD created an affiliate in the

Belgian Congo The Belgian Congo (, ; ) was a Belgian colonial empire, Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960 and became the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville). The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Repu ...

, the

Société Congolaise de Banque Groupe Lactalis S.A. (doing business as Lactalis) is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier S.A. Lactalis is the largest dairy pr ...

. In 1953, the investment company Cofinindus, controlled by and a shareholder of the

, purchased the Fabri family’s equity stake of 33 percent in an attempt to acquire the BRD. That bid was thwarted by the Belgian authorities, however, out of competition policy concerns. Instead, the BRD was taken over by the Banque Lambert, providing a basis for the latter's dynamic expansion in subsequent years.

Notes

Defunct banks of Belgium {{bank-stub

Overview

See also

Notes