About

France-headquartered Crédit Agricole is a full-service banking entity that is comprised of a network of regional banks, with its holding company listed on the Paris Stock Exchange. As the number one lender to the French economy, the legal team has had an important role to play in supporting the bank through a challenging time for the financial sector, both domestically and internationally. As the Financial Times reported early in 2017: ‘Philippe Brassac, chief executive of Crédit Agricole, last year announced plans to cut €900m in costs by 2019 and invest €7.7bn in digital, with the lender also expanding in asset management as a way to diversify away from retail’. This obvious shift in corporate strategy has had an impact on the close-knit legal team, expertly led by head of group legal and compliance Pierre Minor. Indeed, the diversification strategy of the bank led nominators to highlight the work of the Crédit Agricole-Titres legal team, led by secretary general Dominique De Wit. Crédit Agricole-Titres, a subsidiary of the holding company, acts as a custodian account-keeper for the retail banking sector by managing the securities, savings products and internet platform for the network. Considering the recent turmoil in the French retail banking sector – with the major banks renegotiating mortgage loans and experiencing a decline in product fee income – nominators pointed to the importance of De Wit’s outstanding industry knowledge and recognition in the market, as well as the considerable expertise within the team. Returning to its roots – it is sometimes called “the Green Bank” because of its historical links to agriculture – Crédit Agricole has recently committed to higher level of green lending, promising a reported $60bn of financing over the next three years. This renewed focus on green projects is part of a wider fight against the impacts of global warming, and the legal team has been central to the approach that the bank makes in the structure of the financing as well as the due diligence for investment and infrastructure projects all over the world.