120 years ago, Banque de l’Indochine opened a branch in Singapore, which led to Crédit Agricole Group’s presence in the country till today.
Banque de l’Indochine (1905-1975)
On 1 March 1905, Banque de l’Indochine opened its doors in Singapore, a decision that was prompted by several factors. This decision was made to support the Bangkok branch, most of whose operations were settled in Singapore, and to benefit from the growth of the local businesses. However, the first few years were difficult due to the strong banking competition in the country.
The year 1912 marked a turning point: the Banque de l’Indochine bought its own land for its premises. Its basement was rented to the French multinational tyre manufacturing company Michelin, which used it as a warehouse for its latex purchases and tyres sold in the region. The manufacturer remained the bank’s main client until the 1929 crisis. From World War I to 1929, the bank benefited from the growing trade flows from Singapore and the Straits, including exports of rubber, tin, rice and copra.
By contrast, the 1930s was a period of stagnation in the world. Many companies went bankrupt, and the business flow of Banque de l’Indochine branch declined. The World War II was catastrophic for the Singapore branch. Communications with the Paris administration were interrupted as early as 1941, and with the British colony yielding to the Japanese troops, they considered the French bank as an “enemy bank”. The director François de Courseulles was imprisoned and released only after the actions taken in 1943 by the Inspector General of the Banque de l’Indochine, Paul Gannay. He also managed to evacuate the staff to Saigon.
At the end of the war, once Singapore was liberated, the British authorities allowed the branch to reopen. During the 1950s, it benefited from the recovery of Singapore’s activity and its transition from a warehousing and goods transit economy to the creation of local industries. In 1958, an agent of the Singapore branch took advantage of a trip to Malaysia to negotiate a full banking licence. A branch was soon created in Kuala Lumpur, complementing Banque de l’Indochine’s set-up in Singapore.
The 1960s were a period of reorganisation for the Singapore branch, which worked closely with the Kuala Lumpur branch and to which theJakarta branch started to report in 1968 when it was created. Over this period, the bank goal was to provide the most effective support possible for French businessmen travelling to Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. The development of the agency was fostered in 1969 by the signing of a financial protocol with the Development Bank of Singapore to facilitate the medium-term financing of sales of French capital goods. Despite strong competition, the Banque de l’Indochine branch expanded its international trade operations and extended its assistance to local companies, both commercial and industrial.
Banque Indosuez (1975-96)
In 1975, the Banque de l’Indochine merged with the Banque de Suez et de l’Union des mines to form Banque Indosuez. Over the next twenty years, Banque Indosuez extended its presence in Singapore to include various business lines. In the late 1970s, the branch expanded its role as a regional centre for foreign exchange and treasury and provided broader assistance to neighbouring branches. A trading room was inaugurated in 1984 and accompanied the strong growth of the business.
At the same time, in 1982, Banque Indosuez created a merchant bank, Indosuez Asia (Singapore) Ltd, with the aim of raising financing throughout South-East Asia. Its success enabled it to open an office in Tokyo in 1985. A team dedicated to wealth management was also created in 1987.
Since then, the number of Banque Indosuez entities grew in Singapore. There were seven in 1990: the branch, Indosuez Asia (Singapore) Ltd, Groupe Financière Indosuez, Carr Futures International PTE Ltd, Indosuez Asset Management (Singapore) Ltd, WI Carr (Singapore) PTE Ltd and New World Indosuez Insurance Brokers PTE Ltd. All of these businesses were grouped together in the same building in 1993 and the Singapore IT centre also handled operations for Tokyo and Hong Kong.
Crédit Lyonnais (1971-2003)
In 1971, Crédit Lyonnais began its presence in Singapore with the opening of a joint representative office for the Europartenaires group, formed with Banco di Roma and Commerzbank. This office was transformed into a Crédit Lyonnais branch in 1979. Like Banque Indosuez, Crédit Lyonnais took advantage of the growth of the Singaporean economy to intervene in various areas, both in commercial banking and financial markets.
The agency also served as a relay in the 1980s for Crédit Lyonnais entities from Indonesia, Australia and India. In 1987, the London-based corporate finance subsidiary CL-ALCH Ltd opened a subsidiary in Singapore. In 1989, the bank created the subsidiary Crédit Lyonnais Merchant Bankers (Singapore) Ltd. The following year, Crédit Lyonnais was also present locally in asset management with a subsidiary of the newly acquired Royal Trust Asset Management Asia Ltd (renamed Crédit Lyonnais International Asset Management, CLIAM). However, this company was sold in 1997.
In 1994, the subsidiary Crédit Lyonnais Private Banking International opened a branch in Singapore. This wealth management system was reorganised in 2003 when Crédit Lyonnais (Suisse) SA obtained a licence to open a branch in Singapore.
Since 1997, Singapore was playing a role for Crédit Lyonnais as a joint processing and marketing centre for all Asian locations. In 2003, Crédit Lyonnais joined the Crédit Agricole Group.
From the Caisse Nationale de Crédit Agricole to today
In 1986, the Caisse Nationale de Crédit Agricole opened a representative office in Singapore. The following year, it had branches in Jakarta and Bangkok. In 1990, the representative office was transformed into a branch.
The major change occurred in 1996 when Crédit Agricole acquired Banque Indosuez to form Crédit Agricole Indosuez (CAI). In Singapore, Crédit Agricole was present through the subsidiaries CAI Merchant Bank Singapore and Indocam Singapore Ltd (formerly Indosuez Asset Management (Singapore) Ltd).
These entities were reorganised following the Asian financial crisis in 1998 - The following year the Monetary Authority of Singaore designated the CAI group as an approved bond intermediary due to its active involvement in the development of the Singapore bond market.In 2001, Indocam Singapore Ltd became CAAM Singapore Ltd and Crédit Agricole Merchant Bank Singapore was renamed Crédit Agricole Merchant Bank Asia Ltd.; in 2003, Crédit Lyonnais joined Crédit Agricole. Its corporate and investment banking activities are merged into Crédit Agricole Indosuez. The new entity is named Calyon - renamed Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank in 2010.
Today, the business lines present in Singapore are the successors of the entities present back in the 2000s:
- Crédit Agricole CIB is now located in the offices where Calyon was earlier;
- Amundi Singapore Ltd, after various developments, is in fact the successor of Crédit Agricole Asset Management Singapore Ltd;
- the Singaporean private bank subsidiary CA Indosuez (Switzerland) SA is the successor of the branch of Crédit Agricole (Suisse) SA opened in 2005;
- Azqore, a subsidiary of Indosuez that provides outsourced banking services for wealth managers, established its Singapore branch in 2015.