The organisation of Commercial banking deployed during 2007 - more customer-oriented with teams dedicated to sectoral portfolios - showed its full relevance during 2008. Our dynamic teams provided our customers with financing solutions in a particularly difficult environment in terms of liquidity and capital constraints. Furthermore, we saw our clients “fly to quality”, going for the best signatures amongst the banks. This includes Calyon which benefits from Crédit Agricole’s quality rating, and also from the more subdued position of a certain number of competitors.

In front of market changes, the most important being the enlargement of our domestic market (SEPA) and the increasing integration of technological innovations (internet, use of mobile equipment, SWIFTnet…), we wanted to group the cash management products design and marketing teams with the sales teams. The objectives were, on the one hand, to bring the product heads closer to our customers but also to our sales forces and, on the other hand, to improve the knowledge and technical skills of these sales networks in the area of cash management.

The requirements of the client, whether a corporate, an institutional or a bank, are now taken into account in their entirety. The combination of the sales teams with the product designers facilitates a real exchange which speeds up our responsiveness. It also improves the match between the client’s requirements and the solutions we provide. Our offer is global so as to deal with the client’s needs to its entire satisfaction. Lastly, we are amongst the very few banks which can now suggest an overall solution to clients’ requirements, particularly regarding SEPA/payment factory with offerings geared to corporates/institutionals and to the banks of these groups through ensuring their representation in local systems (SEPA, ABE, SIT…).

We are establishing even closer ties with our customers. We intend to assist them in the best possible manner in their daily activities, in the areas of cash management, sureties or guarantees, trade finance or forex/rate/commodities hedging. Furthermore, we continue to improve our international cash management offering and to get ready for the next developments of SEPA.