() was a French retail banking network. It consisted of the following banks: , Toulouse, Aquitaine (oldest existing bank in France, founded in 1760) , Alsace, Lorraine , Savoy , Massif Central , Lyon , Limoges , Marseille itself in the rest of France , a stock brokerage firm
is fully owned by Société Générale. specialises on professionals and small business. It serves about 1.5 million customers in more than 700 stores (2006).
History started in Lille in 1848. After buying a number of small banks, it was, in turn, acquired by Paribas between 1972 (35% owned) and 1988 (100% owned) but remained run as a separate network. In the following years several regional French banks were brought in the group while retaining their names.
In 1984, it was the fifth-ranking French banking group. It rebranded itself, after working with Creative Business (a public relations company), with a new logo, graphics of its name, the architecture of its branches, and public relations. It changed its logo from an orange cube to a blue star.
In 1997, the whole network with the associated banks was acquired by from Paribas. Since 2000, is 80% owned by Société Générale and 20% by Dexia.
A full merger with Société Générale was achieved .
The customer-facing SG Crédit du Nord (SG meaning Société Générale) brand is applied to both the former Crédit du Nord, and the Société Générale branches in the North of France.
As with SG Crédit du Nord, the remaining Crédit du Nord banks' identities are also applied as regional brand names:
SG Tarneaud in Centre-Val de Loire and in parts of Nouvelle-Aquitaine (the remaining of the branches in Nouvelle-Aquitaine are named SG Sud-Ouest) SG Courtois in Occitanie SG SMC (for ) in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur SG Laydernier in parts of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (the remaining of the branches in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes are named SG Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes)
Controversy
In 2010, the French government's (the department in charge of regulating competition) fined eleven banks, including , the sum of €384,900,000 for colluding to charge unjustified fees on check processing, especially for extra fees charged during the transition from paper check transfer to "Exchanges Check-Image" electronic transfer.Collusion in the banking sector, Press Release of Autorité de la concurrence, République Française, 20 September 2010, retrv 2010 9 203rd UPDATE: French Watchdog Fines 11 Banks For Fee Cartel, Elena Bertson, Dow Jones News Wires / Wall Street Journal online, retr 2010 9 20
References
External links
Credit du Nord bank profile