, with tribute to group The two main co-founders
Delessert and
La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt The first French savings bank () was created in Paris in 1818 by a group of financiers, social reformers and philanthropists that included
Benjamin Delessert,
Jean-Conrad Hottinguer,
Joseph Marie de Gérando,
Jacques Laffitte, the
François Alexandre Frédéric, duc de La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt,
James Mayer de Rothschild, and
Vital Roux. Delessert and La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt were widely seen as the main promoters of the project. In subsequent years, Caisses d'Épargne were created in numerous French towns and cities on a decentralized basis, variously by initiative of
Prefects, municipal councils,
mounts of piety (traditional lending institutions overseen by the Catholic Church), and/or local religious (Catholic or
Protestant) elites. Most of these were created in the northern half of the country, and overwhelmingly served urban rather than rural areas. As in other parts of Europe, the original aim to serve the lifelong financial needs of the lower classes were only partially met, and the client base of the Caisses d'Épargne including many members of the emerging and affluent middle classes, including women and children, albeit with significant geographical heterogeneity. By 1881, there were 542 local Caisses d'Épargne in the country. That year, the French government decided create the
Caisse Nationale d'Épargne (CNE), France's first
postal savings system, which competed with the existing Caisses d'Épargne by leveraging France's post office network. From then on, the pre-existing Caisses d'Épargne were known as "ordinary" or "private" savings banks ( or ) to differentiate them from the state-owned CNE. In 1983, new legislation created a central financial entity or "national center", the (CENCEP). In 1992, CENCEP was replaced by the (CNCE), which unlike CENCEP was a licensed bank. In 1999, new legislation transformed the savings banks into cooperatives. These developments paved the way for the gradual transformation of the decentralized network of savings banks into an increasingly integrated universal banking group in the next decade. In July 1999, CNCE acquired majority ownership of
Crédit Foncier de France. Also in 1999, France's
Caisse des dépôts et consignations (CDC) formed a commercial and investment banking subsidiary, CDC IXIS. In 2001, CNCE and CDC formed a joint venture, Eulia, to which CDC contributed CDC IXIS. In June 2004, CNCE took full control of Eulia and therefore also of CDC IXIS, which it renamed Ixis. Between 2003 and 2008 CNCE separately acquired the French subsidiary of
Sanpaolo IMI, including the former and French operations of the
Banque Française Commerciale, and made it its private banking subsidiary under the new brand
Banque Palatine adopted in June 2005. In 2006 the two groups, Caisse d'Épargne and fellow mutual
Groupe Banque Populaire, agreed to merge their commercial and investment banking subsidiaries, respectively Ixis and Natexis Banques Populaires. The new entity was given the name Natixis, a
portmanteau of Natexis and Ixis. Natixis went through an
initial public offering on , after which CNCE and BFBP each owned 35 percent of its equity capital, the rest being free float. Natixis, however, soon suffered from poor capital allocation and risk management choices during the
2008 financial crisis, including on investments into
Bernie Madoff's funds. Key executives had to resign or were sacked:
Nicolas Mérindol and , respectively CEO and chairman of CNCE, on ; and Bruno Mettling, respectively chairman of Natixis and CEO of BFBP, on ; and , CEO of Natexis, on . In October 2008 Groupe Caisse d'épargne announced plans to merge with Groupe Banque Populaire, in response to recent consolidation in the banking industry. ==Operations==