The story
19th century
The Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations succeeded the Caisse de garantie et d'amortissement, created by Napoleon and liquidated in 1816 following his demise. It was the brainchild of Louis-Emmanuel Corvetto, Finance Minister under King Louis XVIII, in a context of government debt distress in the aftermath of the Hundred Days turmoil of 1815 and of Louis XVIII's distrust of the Bank of France given its Napoleonic baggage. Article 110 of its founding law of 28 April 1816 reads: "Deposits, consignments and services relating to the Legion of Honour, to the channel company and to pension funds [...] will be administered by a special body under the name Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations." Three executive orders of 3 July 1816 further defined the major areas of activity of the new entity: consignments (French: consignations), namely safekeeping funds or assets that are subject to ongoing legal disputes; voluntary deposits from individuals or public bodies and funds from the legal professions; and pension funds. Additional activities included the management of accounts for the Legion of Honour, and financial services for the French army. By law, the CDC also was directed to use its funds mainly to purchase public "annuities" and therefore contribute to the funding of the French state.
Under Prime Minister Joseph de Villèle, the French government started to leverage the CDC to finance new infrastructure, inaugurating its role as France's development bank. The CDC granted its first local infrastructure loan for the development of the Port of Dunkirk in 1822, and at the same time acquired securities issued by the Compagnie des quatre canaux, a canal investment venture. In 1825, it was tasked with the indemnification of former colonists in Saint-Domingue under the settlement that gave rise to the Haiti Independence Debt.
From 1837, the French parliament decided that the funds collected by the local caisses d'épargne (French savings banks)' savings accounts should be centralised and invested by the CDC. This provision was extended to the postal passbook (later Livret A) upon the creation of the Caisse nationale d'épargne in 1881.
In 1850, the CDC started acquiring stakes in newly created railways companies. That same year, in addition to its mandate to manage the civil service pension fund held since 1816, the CDC was tasked with managing France's first old-age pension fund (French: Caisse des retraites pour la vieillesse, CRV), which extended the personal protection scope to a much broader range of beneficiaries. The first two public life insurance institutions set up in France, the National Insurance Fund in the event of Death (French: Caisse nationale d'assurances en cas de décès, CNAD) and National Insurance Fund in the event of Accidents (French: Caisse nationale d'assurances en cas d'accidents, CNAA), were also managed by the CDC from their creation in 1868.
Since 1890, under a mandate from the French state, the CDC has been receiving funds deposited by individuals at notaries, notably during inheritance or property transactions. This line of operations has subsequently widened to include funds from company administrators and legal representatives, court clerks, and bailiffs. The CDC was further entrusted with the management of new mandates like the Social Cohesion Fund (French: Fonds de cohésion sociale, FCS) which guarantees loans to individuals and legal entities and grants loans to job-seekers or welfare recipients who create their own company.
20th century
In 1905, the CDC granted its first loans to social housing out of its own funds. In 1908 the French state entrusted it with the management of its housing loans and the French law of 26 February 1921 authorised loans on savings funds for low-cost housing (HBM), prefiguring the first social housing (French: Habitations à Loyer Modéré, HLM). The French law of 1928, known as "Loi Loucheur", did not change this mission, rather it strengthened the CDC's role through a large scale programme of 200,000 low-cost homes and 80,000 moderate-rent homes.
By the end of 1930, CDC loans to local authorities allowed for the creation of a national telephone network. The next year, the 1931 Finance Act authorised the CDC to invest inflows to the savings funds in corporate shares and bonds.
Under the Vichy regime, the CDC received funds confiscated from the French Jewish community. These funds were later only partially restored to their legitimate owners after France's liberation.
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In the afterwar period, the CDC became a main catalyst of France's reconstruction, often in partnership with the General Planning Commission. The CDC's role of funding social housing was also strengthened in that period by the implementation of different regulated saving centralisation systems. Several subsidiaries were founded in the 1950s: Société Centrale Immobilière de la CDC (SCIC), a real-estate company in 1954 (rebranded Icade in 2003); Société Centrale pour l'Équipement du Territoire (SCET) in 1955, a service provider for local infrastructure companies (French: Sociétés d'économie mixte, SEM); Villages Vacances Familles in 1958, specialising in social and family tourism.
In 1959, the CNAD and CNAA merged to form the Caisse Nationale de Prévoyance (CNP), later rebranded CNP Assurances and publicly listed in 1998. CNP Assurances was in 2013 the number one personal insurance company in France.
Since 1960, the CDC has been decentralised into 25 regional management units (French: délégations régionales, later directions régionales), one for each French region, which implement the group's strategy in their respective territorial remit. In 1963, the CDC created the Société Forestière, a forestry company.
In 1966, the CDC created the Local Authority Infrastructure Support Bank (French: Caisse d'aide à l'équipement des collectivités locales, CAECL), which in 1987 became the Crédit Local de France (CLF), itself merged in 1996 with Crédit Communal de Belgique to form Dexia.
In 1970, the CDC created another subsidiary, Scetauroute, for the development of motorway infrastructure. The development of services has since widened to the public transport sector for passengers with Transdev in 1990, to engineering infrastructure with Egis in 1998 (via the merger of Scetauroute and other engineering subsidiaries) and lastly to the business of ski and leisure park operation with the Compagnie des Alpes in 1989.
From 1994, the CDC has invested in SMEs with the SME Innovation programme, to strengthen their equity, encourage innovation and support the risk capital market. CDC Entreprises succeeded CDC PME in 1998.
In 1999, the CDC formed a new subsidiary, CDC IXIS, that took over its commercial banking activities, in order to mitigate competitive distortions associated with its role in the financial sector.
21st century
In 2000, the CDC was entrusted with the creation of the cyberbase programme, the aim of which was to deploy digital public spaces over the entire French territory to encourage the development of Internet use and new information technology. Since 2003, it has been investing in the spread of Digital Work Spaces (ENT) which offers digital services to educational institutions (schools, secondary schools and universities).
Also in 2000, the CDC initiated a program of climate research that developed into various projects such as CDC Climat and Novethic. In 2005, it was a sponsor of the European Carbon Fund and of France's national register of greenhouse gas emission quotas. In 2008, it sponsored a "compensation fund for biodiversity" via its specialised subsidiary CDC Biodiversité.
In 2001, the CDC formed Eulia, a joint venture with the Caisse Nationale des Caisses d'Épargne (CNCE), to which it contributed CDC IXIS. In 2004 the CNCE took full control of Eulia and therefore of Ixis, and in 2006 had it merged with Natexis Banques Populaires to form Natixis, which subsequently evolved into a fully owned subsidiary of Groupe BPCE.
In 2004, Caisse des Dépôts acquired all the equity of the Société Nationale Immobilière (SNI), the number one social landlord in France, which it subsequently rebranded as CDC Habitat. Also in 2004, the CDC participated in Qualium Investissement, aimed to support venture capital activity. It was strengthened in 2007 by the creation of the Strategic Investment Fund (French: Fonds Stratégique d'Investissement, FSI). As a consequence of the 2008 financial crisis, the CDC incurred a loss in 2008 for the first time in its history.
In 2013, CDC Entreprises and the FSI merged to form Bpifrance, half-owned by the CDC. That same year, the CDC acquired 20 percent of the newly formed SFIL.
Since 2014, the CDC has been developing its role as trustee and lender on behalf of third parties inherited from its original consignations business, as well as managing the Personal Training Account (French: Compte personnel de formation, CPF), dormant accounts and the Programme of investments for the future (French: Programme d'Investissements d'Avenir, PIA).
In January 2016, following France's 2015 reform of regions, the number of regional CDC units has been reduced to 13.
In 2018, the CDC reorganized its activities supporting France's local governments as a new unit branded the Banque des territoires, which is not however a bank in a legal sense. In 2020, a broad restructuring of state-owned assets led to the CDC becoming sole owner of SFIL, with only one residual share kept by the French state, and 66-percent owner of La Poste, with the French state owning the remaining 34 percent. As part of that same restructuring, CNP Assurances became majority-owned by La Banque Postale (LBP), itself fully owned by La Poste. In 2021-2022, LBP acquired all remaining shares to become the sole owner of CNP, which was correspondingly delisted.
From Wikipedia’s article on Caisse des dépôts et consignations, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5