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Groupe BPCE - France's second-largest banking group - is operational

August 03, 2009 - As voted at the extraordinary general meetings of Banque Fédérale des Banques Populaires (BFBP), Caisse Nationale des Caisses d’Epargne (CNCE) and BPCE and in accordance with the act passed on June 18, 2009, Groupe BPCE was formed on July 31, 2009 and became operational on Monday, August 3, 2009.

Paris, August 3, 2009 - The 20 Banque Populaire banks and 17 Caisse d'Epargne banks are affiliated to the BPCE central body. With 34 million customers, 110,000 employees, 8,000 branches and 7 million member-stakeholders, Groupe BPCE is France's second-largest banking group.

In a decision given at 3.00pm on July 31, the Paris Court of Appeal ruled that the Works Council of Caisse d’Epargne Ile-de-France (CEIDF) had not obtained all of the necessary information concerning the proposed merger between Groupe Banque Populaire and Groupe Caisse d'Epargne and the creation of the new BPCE central body. The Court of Appeal's decision requires CEIDF to start the consultation process again and prohibits it from implementing the proposed merger until the Works Council has received the necessary information.
BPCE has taken note of this decision, which contradicts the Court of First Instance's decision of July 10. The trade union organizations' case was dismissed by the judge, believing that sufficient information was provided to allow the CEIDF Works Council to give an informed opinion.

The decision given by the judge in chambers on July 31, ruling on appeal, does not call into question the legal existence of BPCE, the central body of the Banque Populaire and Caisse d'Epargne banks. CEIDF's involvement in BPCE's constitutive meetings is valid. CEIDF is affiliated by law to BPCE, which is required to exercise all of its legal and regulatory duties towards its affiliate in its capacity as central body.

CEIDF has referred the case to the Court of First Instance to confirm that it has respected all of its commitments towards its representative bodies, as recognized by the Court of First Instance on July 10.
In addition, CEIDF has called a meeting of its Works Council on August 19.
All of the other Caisse d'Epargne and Banque Populaire banks do not need to repeat the consultation procedure with their employee representative bodies concerning the creation of BPCE.
Pending the conclusions of the ruling, Groupe BPCE's networks and customer service are now operational.

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