Our actions

For Groupe BPCE, being a Premium Partner of the Olympic & Paralympic Games Paris 2024 goes well beyond a commitment limited to public image and sponsorship activities. It forms an integral part of the Group’s ambition to become the benchmark banking partner of the sports economy.

For our Group, the sports economy is a lever of economic growth. The Olympic & Paralympic Games Paris 2024 will help develop all the dimensions of the sports industry in France as well as all the business areas involved in this global event.

Our Group is well placed to play an active role in this economic development thanks to the support it already gives to business organizations, local authorities, associations, and federations, the financing it provides for start-ups and dedicated SMEs, notably via the ‘Entreprendre 2024’ initiative. It also provides an opportunity to mobilize the expertise of all our brands to help ensure the success of Paris 2024, contributing to the financing of infrastructure projects and, more generally, to the development of the sports economy as a whole.  This commitment also, and above all, expresses our determination to be a partner of all the local and regional communities and to contribute to the legacy of the Olympic & Paralympic Games Paris 2024 .

This is why Caisse d’Epargne launched Le Pacte Utile (‘Useful Pact’) initiative, a commitment program designed to help make the Olympic & Paralympic Games useful for everyone. The areas of intervention are numerous – sponsoring athletes, restoring or creating sports venues, supporting associations – and testify to the strength of Caisse d’Epargne’s commitment to sport. The action areas are grouped under three headings: being useful to the regions, being useful to the athletes, and being useful to society at large.

Banque Populaire has launched a legacy program, entitled Sillage (a ship’s ‘wake’ or ‘trail’), to help preserve aquatic environments through an educational program, support for World Clean Up Day and numerous other actions, notably during the Maxi Banque Populaire XI’s Ocean Relay. A series of educational and participatory tools for all school levels are available to help heighten students’ awareness of the issues at stake.

A partner of local communities for investment in sport

Groupe BPCE is the leading private provider of funding for sports facilities in France via the local authorities, which own over 80% of infrastructure for sporting activities. For example, Groupe BPCE has helped finance major infrastructure projects in France, such as the Maison du Handball flagship facility in Créteil in the southeast suburbs of Paris, the Paris La Défense Arena, or the Olympic Village in St Denis in the northern suburbs of Paris. 

Sport & Performance Capital, the first fund dedicated to sports start-ups

Sport & Performance Capital, an investment fund set up by the Caisse d’Epargne and Seventure Partners (an affiliate of Natixis Investment Manager), will be investing 80 million euros in high-potential French regional companies chosen on the basis of their innovative thinking or their specific know-how in the areas of sport or well-being.

This fund provides a concrete illustration of the commitment made by the Caisses d’Epargne to the sports economy in regional France. It will make it possible to select some fifteen companies in the sports economy with a view to supporting, financing and accompanying their development until 2029. Since its creation, the Sport & Performance Capital investment fund has already invested in 11 companies offering innovative products and services in the sports economy.

Entreprendre 2024, meetings with entrepreneurs throughout France

With the Entreprendre 2024 program, Groupe BPCE is mobilizing its efforts to ensure that the Olympic & Paralympic Games Paris 2024 will benefit local businesses with a special emphasis on VSE-SMEs, and entities active in the social & solidarity economy (SSE). The aim of this initiative was to enable all these companies to take part in the hundreds of tender invitations due to be issued up until 2024 concerning a large number of business sectors related to infrastructure construction and the organization of the games.

Out of a total of 3,500 companies awarded tenders (worth more than 100,000 euros), 1,460 are customers of the Banques Populaires and Caisses d’Epargne, i.e. 42% of the total. It’s also worth noting that 40% of these companies are based outside the Paris region*.

* Figures as at September 2023

The payment expertise of Groupe BPCE and Visa

Groupe BPCE and Visa (a member of the International Olympic Committee’s TOP partner program) have developed innovative banking and payment experiences for fans of the Olympic & Paralympic Games Paris 2024 and, more broadly, for entities active in the sports economy. 

The Group has consequently worked with Visa to facilitate payments and transportation for spectators and delegations during the Olympic & Paralympic Games in Paris as well as in the cities hosting different events.

The Olympic Committee of the Olympic & Paralympic Games Paris 2024 (COJOP) has entrusted Payplug – Groupe BPCE’s e-commerce solution – with the management and payment processing activities of the official site for buying tickets for the Paris Games.

Groupe BPCE’s overall objective is to become the benchmark banking group for payments in the sports industry and major sporting events with a range of specific offers and services.

Groupe BPCE analyzes the sports economy in France

Groupe BPCE publishes research carried out by BPCE L’Observatoire into the sports economy. These studies are original economic, statistical and behavioral analyses conducted by our in-house economists. They aim to understand what the sports sector represents in France, to identify all its players, its economic stakes, and its local and regional specificities.

To consult all the BPCE L’Observatoire studies devoted to the sports industry: