Crédit Agricole

Crédit Agricole, sometimes called the “Green Bank” because of its historical ties to farming, is a French network of cooperative and mutual banks comprising the 39 Crédit Agricole Regional Banks. In 1990, it became an international full-service banking group. It is listed through its holding company, Crédit Agricole S.A., on Euronext Paris’ first market and is part of the CAC 40 stock market index. In 2013, the Crédit Agricole Group reported revenues of €26.4 billion.

It was the title sponsor of the Crédit Agricole professional road cycling team from 1998 to 2008.

History

Source for most of the "History" section.

In the second half of the 19th Century, French farmers struggled to obtain long-term, flexible, reasonably-priced credit. There were several attempts to set up farming banks, including Crédit Foncier de France in 1861, but none was successful.

Birth of Crédit Agricole and creation of the local and regional banks 1894 - 1900

Crédit Agricole can trace its history back to the end of the 19th Century, and specifically to the Act of 1884 establishing the freedom of professional association, which authorised, among other things, the creation of farm unions and the foundation of local mutual banks.Société de Crédit Agricole was created on 23 February 1885 at Salins-les-Bains in the district of Poligny in the Jura region. It was the first of its kind in France.

Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank

Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank (Crédit Agricole CIB, formerly Calyon) is Crédit Agricole's corporate and investment banking entity. With a staff of 9500 employees in 32 countries, Crédit Agricole CIB is active in a broad range of capital markets, investment banking and financing activities. Clients are primarily corporates, governments, and banks, with a small footprint in the investor segment.

History

Calyon was created in May 2004 by the transfer of assets from Crédit Lyonnais' Corporate and Investment Banking division to Crédit Agricole Indosuez (CAI), which had been created in 1996 with the purchase of Banque Indosuez by Crédit Agricole.

The division was rebranded Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank (CACIB) in Feb 2010.

The bank's commitments

CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)

Crédit Agricole CIB is committed as far as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is concerned. One example is FReD, a Crédit Agricole S.A program to enhance CSR: action plans cover environmental aspects (recycling, biodiversity…), employee-related projects (background and gender equality, handicap) and customer-related issues (fight against fraud, protection of personal data …). These plans are monitored by progress indicators.

CIB

CIB may stand for:

Banks

Military and police

Councils and government boards

Hong Kong

Hong Kong (香港; "Fragrant Harbour"), officially Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, is an autonomous territory on the southern coast of China at the Pearl River Estuary and the South China Sea. Hong Kong is known for its skyline and deep natural harbour. It has a land area of 1104 km² and shares its northern border with Guangdong Province of Mainland China. With around 7.2 million inhabitants of various nationalities, Hong Kong is one of the world's most densely populated metropolises.

After the First Opium War (1839–42), Hong Kong became a British colony with the perpetual cession of Hong Kong Island, followed by Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and a 99-year lease of the New Territories from 1898. Hong Kong remained under British control for about a century until the Second World War, when Japan occupied the colony from December 1941 to August 1945. After the Surrender of Japan, the British resumed control. In the 1980s, negotiations between the United Kingdom and the China resulted in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, which provided for the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong on 30 June 1997. The territory became a special administrative region of China with a high degree of autonomy on 1 July 1997 under the principle of one country, two systems. Disputes over the perceived misapplication of this principle have contributed to popular protests, including the 2014 Umbrella Revolution.