Credit Mutuel Cic history

In response to the food shortage of 1846-47, he creates an organization that builds a cooperative bakery and buys seeds.

CIC is one of France's oldest commercial banks, having been founded on May 7, 1859 as Société Générale de Crédit Industriel et Commercial by an imperial decree of Napoleon III.

A Lyon lawyer, Durand establishes local banks based on the Raiffeisen model in 1893 and consolidates them under the Union des Caisses Rurales et Ouvrières de France (UCROF - a farmers' and workers' banking union).

In 1901, the local banks are classified as non-profit organizations.

Some will respond positively and create Crédit Agricole in 1920.

The order of October 16, 1958 confirms Crédit Mutuel's organization.

The status of the local banks is defined, as is that of the confederation to which the regional federations have belonged since 1959.

The switch in 1968 to monthly wage payments drove the move to open current accounts, helped by the direct payment of wages into bank accounts and the mandatory use of checks for payments of more than a certain amount.

The Livret Bleu savings account, unique to Crédit Mutuel, was introduced by the Supplementary Budget Act of December 27, 1975.

In 1977 Crédit Mutuel joined the SWIFT(1) system.

All these breakthroughs led to the establishment of Euro-Information on March 1, 1978.

By the end of 1979, salaried workers accounted for 77% of loans granted.

Le Crédit Mutuel : De la caisse rurale à la banque sociale - André Gueslin - éditions Coprur - 1982

Crédit Mutuel now holds a prominent place in the banking sector, the scope and activities of which are set out in the banking law of 1984.

In 1993, The Crédit Mutuel Centre Est Europe and Sud-Est Federations set up a joint Federal Bank (Caisse Fédérale).

In Spain,with the acquisition of Atlantis which, along with the integration of Agrupació in 2012, will help it consolidate its growth in that country.

By 2014, Crédit Mutuel has locations in 13 European countries.

The group is ranked as one of France's strongest banks following the July 2015 stress test; it is classified among the best banks in France by rating agencies and considered the best French banking group by World Finance, and Global Finance, The Banker: Explore our Awards and Recognition.

In 2016, an agreement was signed with General Electric France and Germany, enabling Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale to become one of the leaders in the factoring and leasing markets in both these countries.

In 2018, the CM11 name was dropped and replaced by "Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale", the name that now denotes the group formed by the 11 Crédit Mutuel federations, BFCM and its subsidiaries.

In 2020, by taking "Listening and acting together" as its corporate purpose and becoming the first bank to adopt "benefit corporation" status, Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale forcefully reaffirmed the more modern and meaningful values that make it an outstanding responsible bank.

* A bank owned by its customers, that changes everything - Crédit Mutuel, a cooperative bank owned by its 8.3 million customer-members (12.31.2021)