Le noeud de vipères

Last month the second biggest bank in the world, Crédit Agricole, bought 53% of Banque Indosuez for Ffr6.3 billion. In theory this is its first down-payment for a passport to global investment banking. But don't hold your breath. Crédit Agricole is a slow mover and Indosuez is not so much an investment bank, more a nest of vipers. David Shirreff reports

Ask Richard Sandor or Wendy de Monchaux whether they think Banque Indosuez is a useful addition to Crédit Agricole’s financial fire-power. Their answer might be a short expletive.

Both of them quit Indosuez after a brief, but initially successful, attempt to turn the conservative banque d’affaires into an Anglo-Saxon-style derivatives powerhouse.

Jean-Claude Gruffat, at that time in charge of Indosuez in New York, hired Sandor and de Monchaux in April 1990 from a defunct Drexel Burnham Lambert, where they had just successfully unwound a $25 billion swap book.

Le noeud de vipères

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Le noeud de vipères

Thanks for your interest in Euromoney!To unlock this article:

The world’s best private banks for digital

Rebuilding banks from the inside out in the digital age

Eastward bound: Why Gulf banks are tapping Asia’s capital markets

Islamic Finance Innovation 2025

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