BPCE - 2020 Universal Registration Document

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MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN OF THE MANAGEMENT BOARD

Message from the Chairman of the Management Board

T he year 2020 will remain an exceptional year, marked by the global health crisis and its unprecedented economic and social consequences. In this context, all of the Group’s companies have come together to serve our customers, our employees and, more broadly, society as a whole. The Banques Populaires and the Caisses d’Epargne, Natixis and Banque Palatine have provided extensive support to all our clients, be they individuals, professionals, companies, local authorities or institutions. As a result, nearly 200,000 state-guaranteed loans were granted, representing an amount of €31 billion, and more than 500,000 loan extensions were granted.We have also taken exceptional measures to help the sectors or populations most affected, such as the public hospital sector, professionals, and students and trainees, in particular. In addition to the attention paid to our customers, our companies took part in the great movement of solidarity towards caregivers, the hospital sector and medical research. Numerous initiatives were launched locally in our various regions to support people made vulnerable by the crisis and local non-profit associations. In this extraordinary environment, we stayed the course and built on the major transformations under way, notably with the creation of a European leader in 100% SRI fixed-income and insurance-related asset management with Ostrum Asset Management. With this transaction, the Asset and Wealth Management business lines of Natixis now represent a total of €1,100 billion in assets under management.

At the same time, we ramped up our “Digital Inside” strategy in both our networks: today, 80% of our main banking customers use our digital channels and more than six million of them are active on the mobile apps of the Banques Populaires and the Caisses d’Epargne. At the same time, we also completed the digitization of all our credit journeys. In terms of corporate social responsibility, we accelerated the momentum that the Group’s companies have been building for several years to promote a more sustainable economy and more inclusive finance to serve our customers and society. This commitment was praised by the non-financial rating agencies Eiris Vigeo and CDP, which rank us as a leader in the banking sector. Our Group was able to weather this difficult year thanks to solid fundamentals: our decentralized cooperative model, our robust financial strength, which sets an example in Europe, the strength of our brands, our regional foothold, and the dynamic momentum of our teams. These are all assets that bolster our ability to support the economic recovery as soon as it materializes and to enable our customers to develop their projects.

Laurent MIGNON Chairman of the Management Board

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UNIVERSAL REGISTRATION DOCUMENT 2020 | GROUPE BPCE