Performance and compensation
Annual performance review
The purpose of these annual discussions between employees and their manager is to establish a dialogue for progress and feedback to encourage professional development.

The Group’s annual performance review campaign is structured around two interviews, formalised and monitored in the company’s centralised career management tool.
Annual appraisal interview
This performance appraisal interview is the summary of the regular feedback given and received throughout the year.
Employees are empowered: they assess their year and propose goals for the coming year. For their part, managers finalise the appraisal resulting from these discussions for the year to come. They also record a summary of the strengths and areas for improvement identified.
Professional interview
The professional interview is an opportunity for employees to develop a professional plan that is consistent with their career path, skills and prospects, and relevant to the Group's needs.
The professional interview that reviews the career to-date of the employee takes place every six years.
Overall compensation policy
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 remuneration 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, levers of the Group’s raison d'être: accountability of employees, strengthening of customer proximity and development of a framework of trust.
The remuneration 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, medium 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.
Variable 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 the 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 life insurance schemes with partial or total coverage of contributions depending on the entity. Since January 2015, the life insurance fund has been pooled at Prédica within the Canopée scheme to pool the risk of Providence contracts (death, disability or temporary disability) for Crédit Agricole S.A.’s employees in France.
- Health insurance: 100% of employees in France are covered by a health insurance policy, and 99% abroad. 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 2021:
5.1%
of the Group’s share capitalis held by the Group’s employees and former employees
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 of the CSE.
Other benefits include the partial refund of transport costs, subsidies to the various staff canteens, monetisation of leave credits, and long-term service awards.
Executive compensation
Compensation awarded for 2021
The Chairman of the Board of Directors only receives fixed compensation.
The annual variable compensation of corporate officers is partly paid immediately and partly deferred. Click here to find out more.
• 8 for the Chairman of the Board of Directors • 38 for the Chief Executive Officer • 22 for the Deputy Chief Executive Officer |
2022 compensation policy
The main purpose of the Executive Corporate Officers’ compensation policy is the recognition of performance over the long term and the smooth implementation of the Group’s strategic plan.
The policy is aligned with the social interests of the company, as it takes into account aspects of sustainable performance as well as short-term financial results.
Performance assessment for 2022
Annual variable remuneration
To ensure complete independence in the performance of his duties, the Chairman of the Board of Directors does not receive any variable remuneration.
The Chief Executive Officer and Deputy Chief Executive Officers are eligible for individual variable remuneration, the amount of which for a given financial year is contingent on performance. The target is set respectively at 100% and 80% of their fixed compensation, capped at 120% if the target is exceeded.
Performance assessment is based on criteria defined by the Board of Directors, as described in the Universal Registration Document here.
Long-term incentive plan
Since 2020, the Chief Executive Officer and the Deputy Chief Executive Officers benefit from the free allocation of performance shares, within a budget strictly limited to 0.1% of share capital, in order to strengthen their contribution to the creation of long-term value of Crédit Agricole S.A.
The number of shares allocated each year by the Board of Directors is capped at 20% of annual fixed remuneration.
The acquisition of these shares is determined, in particular, by the fulfilment of three demanding conditions regarding economic, stock market and societal performance assessed over a period of five years.
The acquisition of the shares is followed by a retention period of one year.
In addition, the Chief Executive Officer and Deputy Chief Executive Officers are required to hold, until they leave office, 30% of the shares acquired each year.