French Banks

Banking is strong in France: two banks, BNP Paribas and the Credit Agricole Group are among the top ten in the world in terms of total assets, and there are more than 26,000 permanent bank branches. In alphabetical order, the six main banking groups are:

• Banque Populaire, a mutual bank with more than three million members and one of the largest networks in the country, www.banquepopulaire.fr.
• BNP Paribas, the largest commercial bank in the country, www.bnpparibas.net.
• Caisse d'Epargne Group, the principal savings institution that offers the Livret A passbook as well as other services, www.groupe.caisse-epargne.com.
• Credit Agricole Group, a mutual institution that now has numerous subsidiaries, including the Credit Lyonnais retail bank group, www.creditagricole.fr.
• Credit Mutuel, a mutual credit bank with the second largest network in the country, www.creditmutuel.com.
• Societe Generate, a commercial bank that is the country's seventh largest company and a leader in financial services in the Euro zone, www.socgen.com.

You can locate a bank branch by looking under Banques in the Yellow pages or by visiting the bank group websites, as all have branch locators and most have pages in English as well as in French.

From 1 January 2006, the Postal Services which long has offered financial services through 17,000 post offices across the country, joined the banking sector by establishing Banque Postale, www.labanquepostale.fr.

Dexia of Belgium and France is the world's largest municipal credit group, offering services to the public sector including the financing of sustainable development across the country, www.dexia-creditlocal.com.