Groupe BPCE: No.1 collector and manager of solidarity-based savings

Every year, increasingly large numbers of savers and institutional investors are turning to solidarity-based finance*, taking the total amount of savings under management to its current level of €12.6 billion (+8.7% year-on-year).

The 12th edition of the Solidarity-based Finance Week, an awareness-building campaign staged from November 4 to 11, reasserted the goals and ambitions of this approach to finance, highlighting the size of its impact and its social and/or environmental utility. Committed to financing the French economy and society as a whole, Groupe BPCE is a front-ranking player in this sector. 

No.1 collector and manager of solidarity-based savings
Boasting market share of 36.3% and 36.7%* respectively, Groupe BPCE is the No.1 collector and manager of solidarity-based savings in France. Natixis Interépargne, Crédit Coopératif and the Banque Populaire and Caisse d’Epargne retail banking networks all contribute to generating inflows in this area. On the Asset Managers side, Mirova has confirmed its position as the No.1 management company for solidarity-based funds with deposits of €526 million out of a total of €11 billion invested in SRI/responsible funds**, alongside Crédit Coopératif, Ecofi Investissements, and the Banque Populaire retail banking network. Crédit Coopératif also remains the leading retail bank for solidarity-based savings (excluding employee savings schemes) and the No.1 bank for shared savings products with, notably, the AGIR range of products, including a debit card that triggers a micro-donation with each use, and passbook savings accounts.

Thanks to its social commitment, Groupe BPCE provides financing in many areas, such as access to employment and professional inclusion (Mirova Emploi France, Insertion Emplois Dynamique), promoting entrepreneurship in developing countries (Natixis Impact Nord Sud Développement), activities pursued in favor of ecology and the climate – CodevAIR, Ecofi Agir pour le Climat (“Acting in favor of the Climate”) – or facilitating access to housing and health care, etc.

The importance of employee savings plans
Solidarity-based employee savings plans account for more than 80% of new investment inflows and 63% of existing deposits, highlighting the importance of this distribution channel, which is easily accessible to employees given that each company is required to offer at least one solidarity-based fund in its company savings scheme. Ranked No.2 in the market, Natixis Interépargne ensures that the solidarity-based funds managed by Mirova are distributed well beyond the employees of Groupe BPCE to people working for major manufacturing or service-industry groups.

Glossary 
*Solidarity-based finance: solidarity-based finance covers the various financing solutions that enable savers to give meaning to their savings by investing in unlisted economic entities: associations, cooperatives, companies pursuing activities of high social and/or environmental utility. The corresponding funds are certified by Finansol. 
**Socially responsible investment: funds managed in a way that includes social, environmental or corporate governance criteria in the choice of certain business sectors or of certain securities issued by governments or companies in the fixed-income or equity markets.

Figures as at December 31, 2018 
Source: Finansol