Performance and compensation

The development of Crédit Agricole S.A. employees’ skills is inherent to the company’s Human-centric Project. To adapt to changing business roles, various mechanisms are in place within the Group.

Thus, annual discussions between employees and their manager aim to establish a progress feedback loop to foster professional development. 

To this end, the Group’s appraisal and development campaign is structured around two annual interviews: the appraisal and the professional interview. Both interviews are formalised in a career monitoring and management tool.

Annual appraisal

Each employee in permanent employment has an annual appraisal interview to review the year in question.

Employees are asked to conduct a self-assessment and suggest objectives for the upcoming year.

After discussions, the manager finalises the appraisal and approves the objectives for the upcoming year. Managers also save in the career management tool any strengths and areas for improvement, following an assessment of professional skills.

The latter cover in particular:

• Hard skills: general, technical or specific knowledge necessary to carry out the employee’s function.
• Soft skills: attitudes and behaviours that are applicable to all functions 
• Managerial skills: specific skillset expected from employees in managerial positions.

Additionally, since 2022 the Group has been rolling out a new 360° feedback system that encourages discussion and the ongoing development of employees throughout the year. Requests for such feedback are made by employees directly, and can also be requested from other work colleagues, including project managers, peers, team members etc. 

In 2025:

Annual professional interview  

This interview is an opportunity for employees to develop a professional career plan that is consistent with their career path, skills and prospects, and relevant to the Group's needs.

The professional interview is a legal obligation for French companies, to be carried out every two years.

Within Crédit Agricole S.A. in France, a professional interview is planned every year, and a summary interview that reviews the career to-date of the employee takes place every six years. 

As a leading player in the banking market, both nationally and internationally, Crédit Agricole S.A. applies a compensation policy that aims to align the interests of Clients, Shareholders and Employees in an increasingly competitive and regulated market. 

This compensation policy contributes to conveying the values of fairness, transparency and usefulness, which are key to the Group. It contributes to the implementation of the three founding principles of the Human-centric project, drivers of the Group’s Raison d'Être: accountability of employees, boosting customer proximity and developing a framework of trust.

The compensation of employees and senior managers is determined on the basis of precise and clear criteria that reflect the skills used and the seniority, individual and collective performance delivered within the context of the organisation's sustainable responsibility. 

Fixed elements, social benefits and peripheral elements together constitute the Group’s compensation policy. Each of these elements meets different objectives in terms of remuneration of performance in the short and long term, consistent with the 2022-2025 MTP.

Employees may benefit from all or part of these components, depending on their level of responsibility, skills and performance:
 

• Fixed remuneration,
• Annual variable remuneration, linked with reaching individual and/or collective objectives consistent with the 2022-2025 Medium-Term Plan,
• Collective variable remuneration, according to the entity’s annual performance,
• Long-term variable remuneration, for executive managers, according to the Group’s economic, stock market and societal performance,
• Peripheral benefits add to direct remuneration, and includes retirement, healthcare and pension schemes.

To find out more, click here

Over the 'Ambitions 2025' MTP period, measures dedicated to pay equality between women and men led to an increase in the wage bill of 30 million euros.

Collective variable remuneration and peripheral compensation
 

• Company Savings Plan (PEE): 100% of employees in France have access to a company savings plan with matching contributions from Crédit Agricole S.A. entities.
• Group Retirement Savings Plan (PERCOL): 100% of employees in France have a PERCOL, which is also funded by Crédit Agricole S.A. entities.
• Profit-sharing and incentive plans: 100% of employees in France benefit from profit-sharing agreements and incentive plans specific to each entity.
• Life insurance: 100% of employees in France are covered by providence schemes with partial or total coverage of contributions (death, disability, temporary incapacity to work) depending on the entity of belonging.
• Health insurance: 100% of employees in France are covered by a health insurance policy. Depending on the entity, the basic plan is mandatory or optional for spouses and children. Some entities have also taken out supplementary hospitalisation and specialist insurance policies.

In 2025:

Additional benefits

Throughout their careers, employees have access to a number of benefits offered by the Group, Crédit Agricole S.A. and the works council (Comité Social et Economique, or CSE) of each entity. These benefits aim to improve employees’ work-life balance.

The Individual Social Report given to each employee every year provides an overview of the benefits received during the year: components of compensation and, in particular, the company's participation to supplementary health insurance, retirement and life insurance schemes, and the social and cultural activities handled and suggested by the works council.

Other benefits include the partial refund of public or active transport costs, subsidies to the various staff canteens, monetisation of leave credits, and long-term service awards.

Paying a fair, living wage

In 2022, the Group Human Resources Department established a workgroup to launch a living wage initiative within Crédit Agricole S.A. and all its subsidiaries worldwide.

To this end, the Group has adopted the Fair Wage Network’s definition of a living wage, i.e. A wage that ensures minimum acceptable living standards. It enables workers and their families, depending on their geographical location, to have an acceptable standard of living while participating in social and cultural life. It aims to cover the basic needs of a family (two working adults, and a number of children corresponding to the country’s fertility rate) comprising all necessary areas of expenditure, and in particular housing, food, child care, education, health care, transport and communication, and enough remaining for leisure and/or precautionary savings in order to cope with potential unforeseen expenditure.

The review of payroll data as at end 2024 used the methodology and database of Fair Wage Network, and showed that 100% of employees¹ within Crédit Agricole S.A. receive a living wage.

Click here to find out more about executive compensation in place at Crédit Agricole S.A. (URD 2025, chapter 4.4.1 “Compensation policy in 2026 for Executive Corporate Officers submitted to the ex ante vote of shareholders”).