Crédit Agricole 140 years of history: 2010s - The expression of our “Raison d’être”
At the beginning of this decade, Crédit Agricole: included 39 regional banks, fully-fledged banks and the majority shareholders of the central institution Crédit Agricole S.A.; was active in all banking businesses; provided services to all types of customers, from individuals to corporates and institutional investors, from the most vulnerable to the wealthiest; included a second retail banking network, LCL; was present throughout France and on all continents.
In 2019, the Group began to reflect on its “Raison d’être”. Crédit Agricole’s history and its current business were embodied in its “Raison d’être”: ‘Working every day in the interest of our customers and society’.
At each stage of its history, Crédit Agricole chose to direct its development and services to meet its customers’ changing needs and support changes in society. Its usefulness to customers and society and the universality of its action have always guided Crédit Agricole’s activity and still guide it today.
Crédit Agricole’s “Raison d’être” is a strategic compass that unites the Group around a collective purpose in a highly operational manner: a framework in which everyone, in their activity and in their entity, can innovate.
By translating the “Raison d’être” into concrete medium-term goals and ambitions, the Group Project was born.
This Project is expressed as a Societal Project, a Customer Project and a Human-Centric Project. These are the three components of a single Project:
- The Customer Project defines our priorities to act in the interest of each of our customers, focused on the ambitions explicitly set out in the “Raison d’être”.
- The Human-Centric Project sets out the increased role of the Group’s Men and Women in increasingly regulated companies where digital processes are ever more present.
- The Societal Project expresses the ambition to act in the collective interest of society, with three main priorities for action:
- Acting for the climate and the transition to a low-carbon economy,
- Strengthening social cohesion and inclusion,
- Successfully completing the agricultural and agri-food transitions.
In the same series
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Crédit Agricole 140 years of history: 2025 until todayCrédit Agricole is now an original model of universal retail banking. -
Crédit Agricole 140 years of history: 2000s - A new dimensionIn 2001, the regional banks, the majority shareholders of Caisse Nationale de Crédit Agricole, decided to open up its capital to the public. -
Crédit Agricole 140 years of history: 1990s - A growing groupCrédit Agricole, no longer under government supervision, was now in control of its destiny. It completed its goal of becoming a universal bank with the ambition of being useful to all. -
Crédit Agricole 140 years of history: 1980s - The beginnings of universal bankingIn the early 1980s, Crédit Agricole operated throughout France, including in the largest urban areas. It also began to develop its international network with a growing number of new locations (Frankfurt, Milan, Cairo, Singapore, etc.). -
Crédit Agricole 140 years of history: 1970s - From rural to internationalFrom 1971, Crédit Agricole’s geographical scope gradually expanded. -
Crédit Agricole 140 years of history: 1960s - A decade of renewalSince 1897, Crédit Agricole received advances from the government each year, which it had to repay. -
Crédit Agricole 140 years of history: 1950s - Expansion of the networkIn the early 1950s, Crédit Agricole developed savings inflows to boost financing for French farmers. -
Crédit Agricole 140 years of history: 1940s - War and reconstructionThe Second World War disrupted the organisation of Crédit Agricole. -
Crédit Agricole 140 years of history : 1930s - Helping farmers through the crisisThe 1929 crisis that began in the United States reached France in the following years. -
Crédit Agricole 140 years of history : 1920s - Electricity and housingThe birth of the Caisse Nationale de Crédit Agricole -
Crédit Agricole 140 years of history : 1910s - Serving the entire countryAt this time, two important measures strengthened Crédit Agricole’s action in its fight against rural depopulation. -
Crédit Agricole 140 years of history : 1900s - First extension of the scope of actionThe first decade of the 20th century saw Crédit Agricole establish a lasting presence in the regions. -
Crédit Agricole 140 years of history : 1890s - A bottom-up organisationCreation of the local banks -
Crédit Agricole 140 years of history : 1880s - Creation in the JuraOur story begins in 1885 in Salins-les-Bains in the Jura.