The bank for a chaging world

The Roaring Twenties

1918 - 1929 Comptoir National d'Escompte de Paris

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A 500-franc CNEP
bearer certificate, 1920.

Expansion in France and abroad

The end of the First World War saw CNEP already well established in Paris, with some 50 to 60 branches in the Seine district. Between the two world wars the branches were mainly added in the outer suburbs of Paris and the rest of France, keeping pace with the expansion of industry. Because of this growth, the Bank's greater metropolitan network grew from 212 branches in 1912 to 520 in 1929, making CNEP the third largest French bank, with 8 billion francs in deposits.

It expanded in regions that had already experienced strong economic and industrial growth, and the CNEP now served small and medium-sized local businesses and artisans just as it had served the major companies that had been its long-standing clients. Having learned its lesson from the bankruptcy of 1889 it diversified risks while continuing its main role in the financing of the local and national economy by providing loans.

This did not prevent the CNEP from expanding in international markets. Because of its presence in other countries, including neighbors Great Britain and Belgium, and farther away in Argentina and Japan, CNEP was able to support its clients engaged in global trade.

Above all, CNEP was, through the French American Banking Corporation, the best established French bank in the United States.

The French American Banking Corporation (FABC), founded in July of 1919 in partnership with the National Bank of Commerce of New York and the First National Bank of Boston, was an instrument for French-American business collaboration. It operated under the same conditions as American corporations while maintaining close ties with the Comptoir for both its management and its administration.

From 1947, FABC will be an associate of Banque de l'Indochine, then of Suez in 1959, and will be merged with BNP 1971.

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