Up to the end of the twentieth century, the French banking industry consisted of four distinct groups of large banks. In addition to the large private banks comprising Banque Nationale de Paris, Société Générale and Paribas, which were major players in the corporate and foreign business, the government-owned banks Crédit Lyonnais1 and Post Office Savings Bank were of considerable importance for the retail banking. However, the retail banking was largely dominated by the coop- erative banks Crédit Agricole, Banques Populaires and Crédit Mutuel. The fourth mainstay of French banking was traditionally represented by the sav- ings banks. In 2000, the French savings banks entered a new phase of their development. Following a funda- mental reform of.
