Françoise Mercadal-Delasalles is General Manager of the Crédit du Nord group. After being a director in the Budget Department of the Ministry of Economy and Finance for ten years, this young woman and ENA graduate became Deputy Secretary General of the Caisse des Dépôts, then Director of Resources and Innovation in the Société Générale group. The national digital board member is passionate about innovation. We met her in Monaco.
What are Crédit du Nord’s genes, in a nutshell?
It is one of the oldest French banks.
The Crédit du Nord group comprises eight banks: Courtois, Kolb, Laydernier, Nuger, Rhône-Alpes, Société Marseillaise de Crédit, Tarneaud, Crédit du Nord, and a brokerage firm, Gilbert Dupont. The 8600 employees of the group and its 851-branch network serve over 2 million private clients, 305 000 professionals and associations, and 55 000 businesses.
All these banks are organised as real SMEs. They are highly autonomous and driven by advisers with perfect knowledge of the local economic fabric.
There are three major constituents of our genes:
We are directed to business people. Professionals account for 60% of our turnover, while 40% comes from private individuals; dual relations are sometimes created – a sign that we have really won a customer’s trust.
Customer satisfaction has enormous importance for us. We strive to build strong individual relationships with our customers, making each of them a partner in a trustful, lasting relationship. This vision of the bank, focused on the quality of relationships, entails real and strong commitments.
Finally, our organisation is regional, not centralised.
Are Crédit du Nord and Société Marseillaise de Crédit going to move closer together in Monaco?
Absolutely, as far as creating a new bank, a new brand, which is a rare and extremely motivating project. The current environment and the evolution of regulation in Monaco allow this challenge to be considered. The combined group will become the Crédit du Nord group’s ninth bank, in line with the group’s regional bank model. It will be a Monegasque bank whose roots will be in Monaco: we have actually been there with a local footing since 1916 for SMC and since 1919 for Crédit du Nord.
We want to understand local needs in order to meet them better. It seems to us that there is room for a bank close to local professionals and business people. The Monegasque institutions support us. And our employees are very positive about this new project.
When will the inauguration of this new bank take place?
The timing depends on the regulatory authorities, the Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR) supervisory authority and the Financial Activities Control Commission (CCAF). But we hope to be able to inaugurate this new establishment in June 2020. Several projects are coming together: an ‘organisation’ project – we are planning to hire around twenty people – and an IT project.
But this new bank will definitely be in line with the Crédit du Nord culture: "a local bank".
