The Roaring Twenties

The height of success

Despite the recession of 1920 to 1921, BNC stayed on the offensive. It continued to expand its network buying over a dozen banks between 1920 and 1930, and created affiliate offices in the Rhineland which had become part of its subsidiary Comptoir d'Escompte des Pays Rhénans in 1921.

In 1926 BNC began construction of its new main offices at the site of its former head office at 16 Boulevard des Italiens in Paris, which is still the head office of BNP Paribas today.

BNC gradually established a solid list of contacts with leaders in a number of different sectors: SACM (Société Alsacienne de Constructions Mécaniques), the Schwartz wool mill, SAIC (Société Anonyme d'Industrie Cotonnière), Peugeot, Alcatel, Alsthom, Japy, all various clients from CEM.

The 1922 merger with BFCI gave BNC an even firmer position in the business world. Most of the former directors of BFCI joined the bank's board of directors: René Boudon, former Chairman of the board of BFCI took over as Chairman of BNC after Eugène Raval; Maurice Devies was Vice Chairman, Maurice Lépine, former Deputy Director then Secretary General of the Banque de l'Afrique du Sud, and Henri Bousquet, Director.

Other industrial leaders became BNC directors, such as Pierre Richemond of the metallurgy industry, who brought with him some 80 industrial firms (Renault, Fives-Lille, Peugeot, Lorraine-Dietrich, etc.). Another new Director was André Vincent, formerly with Forges et Aciéries de Firminy and the Comptoir Lyon-Alemand (the largest metalworking company in France at the time), who joined the management committee in 1919 and became Chairman in 1927.

Because of these leaders from diverse sectors (metallurgy, gas, electricity, radio), BNC was able to establish partnerships with a number of French industries. In addition to long-standing clients (such as SACM, or the Tréfileries et Laminoirs du Havre, reaching back to Banque Internationale de Paris in 1900-03), the bank fostered new relations, for instance with Citroën, Péchiney, Thomson-Houston and the Marcel Boussac group, and became one of the latter's lead bankers.

Its business clients enjoyed renewable overdraft facilities for three to six months. In addition, BNC granted longer loans of four to 12 months upon receipt of security deposits. This new approach immobilised a fair portion of the bank's funds, and did so at a time when medium-term credit did not yet exist. In a way that was dangerous at the time, BNC supported the companies and financed economic expansion. It took an aggressive approach, defying the established players by winning over their usual clientele, and by gaining lead manager mandates, ignoring the campaigns against it. Little by little, BNC joined the ranks of major banks, those that issue offerings to the market, and those who advocate the profession interests. It was one of the banks to handle the French side of the Young plan concerning German reparations after the First World War.

In international markets, the bank initially financed textile imports, then various overseas products and foodstuffs. It next specialized in credit lines, opening an office in London in 1928 to support the SCOA (Société Commerciale de l'Ouest Africain) a trade company active in business with the United Kingdom, France and sub-Saharan Africa. In 1929, BNC joined its French counterparts to create the Banque Française d'Acceptation.

BNC also expanded its operations to eastern Europe, including financing Turkish and Greek exports to Europe, by building on relations established by BFCI, which had created the Banque Française des Pays d'Orient in 1921.

Over a period of 15 years, BNC carved out a significant position in the banking industry, ranking fourth among French commercial banks.