Banque Nationale de Paris

Banque nationale de Paris (French pronunciation: [bɑ̃k nɑsjɔnal də paʁi]) was a major French bank. It was formed in 1966 through the merger of Comptoir National d'Escompte de Paris (CNEP, est. 1848) and Banque Nationale pour le Commerce et l'Industrie (BNCI, est. 1932). In 1999, BNP initiated a merged with Paribas to form BNP Paribas, completed in 2000.

Overview

In 1966, the French government decided to merge the CNEP and BNCI to create BNP,[2] as part of a broader plan of financial sector reform led by finance minister Michel Debré. Among other initiatives, the Debré plan also entailed banking sector liberalization (known as the réforme Debré-Haberer) and the creation of an independent securities commission, the Commission des Opérations de Bourse.[3]

In 1973, BNP employees were allowed to become shareholders, but that opening was reversed in 1982 as the bank was fully renationalized. In 1989, BNP entered a bancassurance partnership with state-owned insurer Union des assurances de Paris (UAP), which later became part of Axa.[4] During the 1980s, the bank's prudent management by longtime CNEP employee René Thomas protected it from the excessive and politicized credit expansion that affected its competitor the Crédit Lyonnais.[5]

The bank was re-privatised in 1993 under the leadership of Michel Pébereau as part of a second Chirac government's privatization policy.[6][7]

Partnership with Dresdner Bank

Starting in 1988, BNP President René Thomas started exploring a strategic partnership with its German counterpart Dresdner Bank.[8] This materialized in the 1990s with the creation of several 50-50 joint ventures in the central and eastern European countries undergoing post-Communist transition: first in Hungary (1990), then in Czechoslovakia and Russia (1991), Poland (1994),[9] Bulgaria (1995), Croatia (1997),[10] and Romania (1998). The Russian joint venture supported a Dresdner Bank branch in Saint Petersburg and had Matthias Warnig, a former East German Stasi officer and associate of Vladimir Putin, as its chairman.[11][12] In late 1998, they brought these joint ventures under a jointly owned holding company based in Vienna, Austria.[13] Beyond these regional initiatives, BNP and Dresdner in 1996 signed a broader partnership,[14] which led analysts in the late 1990s to anticipate closer integration between the two institutions.[15] In 1999, a proposed merger between the two was opposed by Allianz, by then a major shareholder of Dresdner Bank and competitor of Axa.[16]

The partnership, which had never been as popular in France as in Germany,[8] was unwound in the wake of the BNP-Paribas merger. In August 2000, Greece's Egnatia Bank acquired the Romanian joint venture.[13] The new group and Dresdner then divided the other joint-venture banks between themselves: BNP Paribas bought out Dresdner in Bulgaria (with 20 percent still owned by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development), Hungary, and Poland, whereas Dresdner bought out BNP Paribas in Croatia, Czechia, and Russia.[17][18] In October 2002, the two banks amicably terminated their broader partnership agreement of 1996.[14]

The former joint ventures met various fates. BNP Paribas expanded significantly in Poland with the acquisition of BGZ Bank in 2015, and retained a comparatively smaller-scale activity in both Bulgaria[19] and Hungary, where it ranked 19th in the country by assets by end-2023.[20] Dresdner sold its Croatian subsidiary to Zagrebačka banka in 2005,[21] then was itself acquired by Commerzbank in 2008-2009, which merged the two respective Russian subsidiaries in 2010.[22] Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Commerzbank sharply reduced its exposure in the country,[23] stopped servicing payments in Russia in 2023,[24] and by 2025 was still reducing its legacy operations there.[25] As of 2025, Commerzbank retained the former Dresdner Bank's presence in Czechia.[26] The former Romanian joint venture undertook several cycles of restructuring by which it was successively renamed Egnatia Bank Romania (2001) then Marfin Bank Romania (2008), and has been known as Vista Bank since 2019.[27]

Leadership

  • Henry Bizot, Président 1966-1971; previously Président of CNEP 1964-1966
  • Pierre Ledoux, Directeur Général 1966-1971, then Président 1971-1979; previously Directeur Général of BNCI 1963-1966
  • Jacques Calvet, Directeur Général 1976 -1979, then Président 1979-1982
  • Gerard Llewellyn, Directeur Général 1979-1982
  • René Thomas, Président 1982-1993
  • Jacques Masson, Directeur Général 1982-1987[28]
  • Jacques Wahl, Directeur Général 1982-1993
  • Daniel Lebègue, Directeur Général 1987-1996
  • Michel Pébereau, Président-Directeur Général (PDG) 1993-2000; later PDG of BNP Paribas

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "La BNP associe son image à la technologie". BNP Paribas. 27 December 2024.
  2. ^ "The Comptoir national d'escompte de Paris (1848-1966) - BNP Paribas". BNP Paribas. Retrieved 6 December 2023.
  3. ^ Laure Quennouëlle-Corre (2005). "Les réformes bancaires et financières de 1966‑1967". Michel Debré, un réformateur aux Finances, 1966-1968. Paris: Institut de la gestion publique et du développement économique, Comité pour l’histoire économique et financière de la France.
  4. ^ "A modern bank – 1966-1999". BNP Paribas. Retrieved 15 September 2025.
  5. ^ "BNP, birth of a leader". BNP Paribas. 26 December 2024.
  6. ^ "BNP Paribas Group History". International Directory of Company Histories. 36. St James Press. 2001. Archived from the original on 4 April 2017.
  7. ^ "The BNP Paribas Group – History of the Group". BNP Paribas. Archived from the original on 14 September 2013. Retrieved 15 February 2013.
  8. ^ a b "René Thomas, man of intuition". BNP Paribas. 7 January 2025.
  9. ^ "BNP Paribas Group in Poland". BNP Paribas. Retrieved 11 September 2025.
  10. ^ Muriel Jasor (2 December 1997). "BNP et Dresdner Bank : une filiale commune pour Europe de l'Est". Les Échos.
  11. ^ "Report Links Putin to Dresdner". The St. Petersburg Times. 1 March 2005. Archived from the original on 13 June 2008. Retrieved 9 August 2023.
  12. ^ Roman Shleynov (1 July 2017). "Firm Linked to Putin Friend Smoothed Path for BP in Russia". Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.
  13. ^ a b Muriel Jasor (31 August 2000). "BNP Paribas-Dresdner Bank : divorce à l'Est". Les Échos.
  14. ^ a b "Cooperation agreement between BNP Paribas and Dresdner Bank terminated". BNP Paribas. 2 October 2002.
  15. ^ Paul Farrelly (29 September 1999). "Dresdner and BNP to forge superbank". The Observer.
  16. ^ "BNP denies Dresdner tie: France's biggest bank says it's not holding merger talks with Germany's number three". CNN. September 9, 1999. Retrieved August 9, 2023.
  17. ^ "BNP Paribas et Dresdner Bank redéfinissent leurs accords de joint-ventures en Europe Centrale et Orientale". BNP Paribas. 22 December 2020.
  18. ^ "BNP-Paribas, Dresdner Will Split Up Their Eastern Europe Joint Ventures". Washington Post. 22 December 2000. Retrieved 9 August 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  19. ^ "30 years of BNP Paribas in Bulgaria: A Journey of Growth and Innovation". Kapital Insights. 10 November 2024.
  20. ^ Anna Mileiko. "BNP Paribas Magyarországi Fióktelepe". TheBanks.eu. Retrieved 15 September 2025.
  21. ^ "Three approvals granted to new bank owners". Croatian National Bank. 11 May 2005.
  22. ^ "Our presence, your benefits". commerzbank.ru. Retrieved 15 September 2025.
  23. ^ Nicholas Comfort & Steven Arons (16 March 2022). "Commerzbank Cut Russia Risk as It Winds Down in Country". Bloomberg.
  24. ^ "One of the largest banks in Germany Commerzbank stopped servicing payments to Russia". The Odessa Journal. 9 March 2023.
  25. ^ "Commerzbank to continue exiting Russian market even in case of ceasefire". Agenzia Nova. 19 March 2025.
  26. ^ "Our presence, your benefits". commerzbank.cz. Retrieved 15 September 2025.
  27. ^ "About us". Vista Bank. Retrieved 15 September 2025.
  28. ^ "La nomination du président de la Banque Nationale de Paris - René Thomas : un long règne au service de la BNP". Le Monde. 19 May 1993.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.