Crédit Agricole Accelerates Retail Lending as French Margins Recover
French and Italian retail-banking loans rose 1.7% to €895 billion as funding costs eased.
Groupe Crédit Agricole (ACA), the French cooperative banking group, reported an acceleration in retail lending for 2025 as year-end outstandings in France and Italy rose 1.7% YoY to €895 billion, after growing 0.4% in 2024. Regional Bank loans increased 1.6% to €658 billion following flat growth the previous year.
The lending pickup coincided with an improvement in French retail margins as lower funding costs supported the intermediation margin. Deposit growth across France and Italy slowed to 1.2%, leaving balances at €847 billion, compared with 1.8% growth in 2024. Regional Bank deposits rose 1.7% to €616 billion, supported by 3.0% growth in demand deposits and a 3.9% increase in passbook accounts.
Corporate and Investment Banking delivered record full-year revenue for a second consecutive year, with fixed-income, repo and structured-equity activity supporting the 2025 performance. Fee bases elsewhere expanded at a more moderate pace: asset-management assets under management rose 6.2% to €2.380 trillion after 10.0% growth in 2024, while life-insurance assets accelerated to 7.4% growth from 5.1%.
Expense growth absorbed much of the group’s revenue increase. Operating costs rose 3.7% to €23.568 billion against revenue growth of 3.9%, improving the cost/income ratio by 10 bps to 59.6%. At Crédit Agricole S.A., expenses increased 4.9%, faster than the 3.3% rise in revenue, and the cost/income ratio deteriorated 90 bps to 55.7%. Return on tangible equity eased to 13.5% from 14.0%.
Capital strengthened modestly. The phased-in CET1 ratio increased 20 bps to 17.4% for the group and 10 bps to 11.8% for Crédit Agricole S.A. The proposed dividend rose 3% to €1.13 a share, following a 5% increase for 2024.
Credit costs continued to climb, rising 8.2% to €3.452 billion after an 8.5% increase in 2024. The four-quarter cost-of-risk ratio increased 1 bp to 28 bps. Loan-loss reserves reached €22.2 billion from €21.3 billion, though doubtful-loan coverage declined to 82.2% from 84.9%.
Management expects Retail Banking and Personal Finance in France to continue benefiting from margin recovery in 2026. That outlook leaves the developing balance between firmer loan demand, easing funding costs and higher credit expenses at the center of the year ahead.