Crédit Agricole remains an unusual candidate for a global bank with the world’s 15th largest capital base in 2010. At one end of the scale, the bank is built from an agglomeration of provincial mutual banks with a traditional presence in rural France. At the other end of the scale, it operates an investment bank that is pushing hard to expand business in China.
Jean-Paul Chifflet, who rose from a sales role in the group’s south-west regional bank to become CEO in March 2010, believes the contrast between French mutualism and international capitalism is precisely the source of the bank’s strength.
