Banks/Banking in France

Banking in France is very strong, particularly the Credit Agricole Group and the BNP Paribas. These two banks in France are in the list of top ten banks in the world. There are over 26,000 bank branches that are permanent. The system of banking is identical to Germany that is centralized and controls an immense part of the entire republic business and this is done by the Bank of France.

The central office of the Bank of France is in the city of Paris with one or more branches in each department. This institution has benefited by the monopoly of having the authority to issue notes. Moreover, owing to the deposit banking development until recent times, it had a fair big share of complete baking business in this country.

Locating branches of banks in France can be done by looking the yellow pages or even by visiting the websites of that particular bank group as there are branch locators for all the banks and the pages are in English and French.

There are 17000 post offices throughout the country and these postal services that supported the financial services, joined by launching Banque Postale, a banking sector. However, Dexia of France and Belgium are the largest municipal credit group that offers services to public sector and also finances across the country.

Banking Groups

Banque Populaire is one of the renowned banks in France having over three million members and has the largest network in the country. BNP Paribas is also one of the largest commercial bank in France. Caisse d’Epargne Group offers principal savings and other services. Credit Agricole Group has many subsidiaries and is a mutual institution that also includes the Credit Lyonnais retail bank group. A mutual credit bank, Credit Mutuel has the second largest network and a commercial bank, Societe Generate is the seventh largest company as well as a pioneer in the financial services in this zone.

Top domestic banks

The top banks in France are ranked based on their assets at the year end, 2006. BNP Paribas ranks first with 1,440.323.3, and the order follows such as the next is the Credit Agricole with 1,261.320.4, 3rd is the Societe Generale with 956.815.5, 4th Credit Mutuel with CIC482.67.8, 5th is the Natixis with 458.67.4, 6th the Caisse Nationale des Caisses with 436.47.1, 7th the Caisse des Depots Consignations with 200.43.2, 8th the Banque Federale des Banques Populaires with174.62.8, 9th the Banque postale with 111.01.8 and 10th the Credit Immobilier de France with 30.70.5.