Banque Nationale de Paris
Banque nationale de Paris (Template:IPA) was a major French bank. It was formed in 1966 through the merger of Comptoir National d'Escompte de Paris (CNEP, est. 1848) and Banque Nationale pour le Commerce et l'Industrie (BNCI, est. 1932). In 1999, BNP initiated a merged with Paribas to form BNP Paribas, completed in 2000.
Overview
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In 1966, the French government decided to merge the CNEP and BNCI to create BNP,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> as part of a broader plan of financial sector reform led by finance minister Michel Debré. Among other initiatives, the Debré plan also entailed banking sector liberalization (known as the Template:Ill) and the creation of an independent securities commission, the Commission des Opérations de Bourse.<ref>Template:Cite conference</ref>
In 1973, BNP employees were allowed to become shareholders, but that opening was reversed in 1982 as the bank was fully renationalized. In 1989, BNP entered a bancassurance partnership with state-owned insurer Template:Ill (UAP), which later became part of Axa.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> During the 1980s, the bank's prudent management by longtime CNEP employee René Thomas protected it from the excessive and politicized credit expansion that affected its competitor the Crédit Lyonnais.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The bank was re-privatised in 1993 under the leadership of Michel Pébereau as part of a second Chirac government's privatization policy.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Partnership with Dresdner Bank
Starting in 1988, BNP President René Thomas started exploring a strategic partnership with its German counterpart Dresdner Bank.<ref name=Thomas>Template:Cite web</ref> This materialized in the 1990s with the creation of several 50-50 joint ventures in the central and eastern European countries undergoing post-Communist transition: first in Hungary (1990), then in Czechoslovakia and Russia (1991), Poland (1994),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Bulgaria (1995), Croatia (1997),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Romania (1998). The Russian joint venture supported a Dresdner Bank branch in Saint Petersburg and had Matthias Warnig, a former East German Stasi officer and associate of Vladimir Putin, as its chairman.<ref name=PutinWarnigSPTimes>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In late 1998, they brought these joint ventures under a jointly owned holding company based in Vienna, Austria.<ref name=Jasor2>Template:Cite web</ref> Beyond these regional initiatives, BNP and Dresdner in 1996 signed a broader partnership,<ref name=termination/> which led analysts in the late 1990s to anticipate closer integration between the two institutions.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1999, a proposed merger between the two was opposed by Allianz, by then a major shareholder of Dresdner Bank and competitor of Axa.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The partnership, which had never been as popular in France as in Germany,<ref name=Thomas/> was unwound in the wake of the BNP-Paribas merger. In August 2000, Greece's Egnatia Bank acquired the Romanian joint venture.<ref name=Jasor2/> The new group and Dresdner then divided the other joint-venture banks between themselves: BNP Paribas bought out Dresdner in Bulgaria (with 20 percent still owned by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development), Hungary, and Poland, whereas Dresdner bought out BNP Paribas in Croatia, Czechia, and Russia.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In October 2002, the two banks amicably terminated their broader partnership agreement of 1996.<ref name=termination>Template:Cite web</ref>
The former joint ventures met various fates. BNP Paribas expanded significantly in Poland with the acquisition of BGZ Bank in 2015, and retained a comparatively smaller-scale activity in both Bulgaria<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Hungary, where it ranked 19th in the country by assets by end-2023.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Dresdner sold its Croatian subsidiary to Zagrebačka banka in 2005,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> then was itself acquired by Commerzbank in 2008-2009, which merged the two respective Russian subsidiaries in 2010.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Commerzbank sharply reduced its exposure in the country,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> stopped servicing payments in Russia in 2023,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and by 2025 was still reducing its legacy operations there.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> As of 2025, Commerzbank retained the former Dresdner Bank's presence in Czechia.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The former Romanian joint venture undertook several cycles of restructuring by which it was successively renamed Egnatia Bank Romania (2001) then Marfin Bank Romania (2008), and has been known as Template:Ill since 2019.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Leadership
- Henry Bizot, Président 1966-1971; previously Président of CNEP 1964-1966
- Template:Ill, Directeur Général 1966-1971, then Président 1971-1979; previously Directeur Général of BNCI 1963-1966
- Jacques Calvet, Directeur Général 1976 -1979, then Président 1979-1982
- Gerard Llewellyn, Directeur Général 1979-1982
- René Thomas, Président 1982-1993
- Jacques Masson, Directeur Général 1982-1987<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Template:Ill, Directeur Général 1982-1993
- Template:Ill, Directeur Général 1987-1996
- Michel Pébereau, Président-Directeur Général (PDG) 1993-2000; later PDG of BNP Paribas
See also
- Banque Internationale pour le Commerce et l'Industrie, the network of BNP affiliates in Africa
- Banque Marocaine pour le Commerce et l'Industrie, subsidiary in Morocco
- Union Bancaire pour le Commerce et l'Industrie, subsidiary in Tunisia