Awards for Excellence 2018
Mutual banks and publicly owned savings banks continue to dominate much of Europe’s SME banking sector. What makes Crédit Agricole stand out is not just its deep presence in this market but also its success plugging regional businesses into specialized product factories at the centre. Crédit Agricole is France’s biggest bank brand for SMEs, but unlike other big operators in this sector such as BPCE, the Crédit Mutual network or Germany’s Sparkasse, it has the benefit of better integration between the group’s components.
Banking SMEs is a key pillar of Crédit Agricole’s 2016 to 2020 medium-term plan. As the French economy picked up, Crédit Agricole’s lending to these clients – approaching €100 billion for the group – saw strong growth from the second half of 2017, especially at LCL (formerly Crédit Lyonnais), reaching about 8% growth group-wide. Its highly profitable Italian bank also has more than €4 billion in SME loans.
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| Philippe Brassac, CEO of Crédit Agricole SA |
This is not just about the size of the network and the balance sheet, however.