The economy of Benin remains underdeveloped and dependent on subsistence agriculture and cotton. Cotton accounts for 40% of Benin's GDP and roughly 80% of official export receipts. There is also production of textiles, palm products, and cocoa beans. Maize (corn), beans, rice, peanuts, cashews, pineapples, cassava, yams, and other various tubers are grown for local subsistence. Benin began producing a modest quantity of offshore oil in October 1982. Production ceased in recent years but exploration of new sites is ongoing.
Financial services are economic services tied to finance provided by financial institutions. Financial services encompass a broad range of service sector activities, especially as concerns financial management and consumer finance.
Crédit Agricole Group, sometimes called La banque verte, is a French international banking group and the world's largest cooperative financial institution. It is the second largest bank in France, after BNP Paribas, as well as the third largest in Europe and tenth largest in the world. It consists of a network of Crédit Agricole local banks, 39 Agricole regional banks and a central institute, the Crédit Agricole S.A.. It is listed through Crédit Agricole S.A., as an intermediate holding company, on Euronext Paris' first market and is part of the CAC 40 stock market index. Local banks of the group owned the regional banks, in turn the regional banks majority owned the S.A. via a holding company, in turn the S.A. owned part of the subsidiaries of the group, such as LCL, the Italian network and the CIB unit. It is considered to be a systemically important bank by the Financial Stability Board.
A savings and loan association (S&L), or thrift institution, is a financial institution that specializes in accepting savings deposits and making mortgage and other loans. The terms "S&L" and "thrift" are mainly used in the United States; similar institutions in the United Kingdom, Ireland and some Commonwealth countries include building societies and trustee savings banks. They are often mutually held, meaning that the depositors and borrowers are members with voting rights, and have the ability to direct the financial and managerial goals of the organization like the members of a credit union or the policyholders of a mutual insurance company. While it is possible for an S&L to be a joint-stock company, and even publicly traded, in such instances it is no longer truly a mutual association, and depositors and borrowers no longer have membership rights and managerial control. By law, thrifts can have no more than 20 percent of their lending in commercial loans—their focus on mortgage and consumer loans makes them particularly vulnerable to housing downturns such as the deep one the U.S. experienced in 2007.
A financial system is a system that allows the exchange of funds between financial market participants such as lenders, investors, and borrowers. Financial systems operate at national and global levels. Financial institutions consist of complex, closely related services, markets, and institutions intended to provide an efficient and regular linkage between investors and borrowers.
Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank is Crédit Agricole's corporate and investment banking entity. With a staff of 8,940 employees in 32 countries, Crédit Agricole CIB is active in a broad range of capital markets, investment banking and financing activities. Clients are primarily corporates, governments, and banks, with a small footprint in the investor segment.
HSBC Bank Australia Limited is the Australian subsidiary of HSBC. The bank offers a wide range of financial services in Australia through a network of 36 branches and offices. These services include retail and commercial banking, financial planning, trade finance, treasury, and financial markets, payments and cash management, and securities custody.
Retail banking, also known as consumer banking or personal banking, is the provision of services by a bank to the general public, rather than to companies, corporations or other banks, which are often described as wholesale banking.
Cooperative banking is retail and commercial banking organized on a cooperative basis. Cooperative banking institutions take deposits and lend money in most parts of the world.
Société Générale S.A., colloquially known in English speaking countries as SocGen, is a French-based multinational financial services company founded in 1864, registered in downtown Paris and headquartered nearby in La Défense.
A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets.
Northeast Bank is a Maine-based full-service financial institution. Their National Lending group purchases and originates commercial loans on a nationwide basis while the Community Banking group offers personal and business banking services within Maine via nine branches. Additionally, ableBanking, a division of Northeast Bank, offers online savings products to consumers nationwide. Information regarding Northeast Bank can be found at www.northeastbank.com.
The 2008–2009 Belgian financial crisis is a major financial crisis that hit Belgium from mid-2008 onwards. Two of the country's largest banks – Fortis and Dexia – started to face severe problems, exacerbated by the financial problems hitting other banks around the world. The value of their stocks plunged. The government managed the situation by bailouts, selling off or nationalizing banks, providing bank guarantees and extending the deposit insurance. Eventually Fortis was split into two parts. The Dutch part was nationalized, while the Belgian part was sold to the French bank BNP Paribas. Dexia group was dismantled, Dexia Bank Belgium was nationalized.
Crelan was introduced as the bank brand after the merger of Landbouwkrediet / Crédit Agricole and Centea. It is a Belgian bank with roots in agriculture. It is part of Crelan Group, which was 50 percent owned by the Crédit Agricole Group. At the time, KBC and BNP Paribas were the other main shareholders. The arrival of a new bank brand will strengthen the group, in particular the group's online banking and the "Customer Protection" area. Through this acquisition, the new group intends to address the segment of the Belgian population that currently uses unbranded, incomplete financial services. In June 2015 Crelan became again a 100% Belgian cooperative bank, owned by its clients. In 2018 Crelan Group had 919,887 customers and +/- 600 branches, and made a net profit of €66 million.
Amundi is a French asset management company. With €2 trillion of assets under management (AUM) at the end of 2021, it is the largest asset manager in Europe and one of the 10 biggest investment managers in the world.
Crédit Mutuel is a French cooperative banking group, one of the country's top five banks with over 30 million customers. It traces its origins back to the German cooperative movement inspired by Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen in Alsace–Lorraine under German rule, in the 1880s. Crédit Mutuel was a member of the International Raiffeisen Union (IRU).
JS Bank Limited (JSBL) (جے ایس بینک لمیٹڈ) is a Pakistani commercial bank headquartered in Karachi, Pakistan. The bank is a prominent majority-owned subsidiary of JS Group. The bank was established in April 2007 as a result of the merger of two mega corporates, Jahangir Siddiqui Investment Bank Limited and American Express Bank. JS Bank Limited currently operates branches across Pakistan, as well as an international branch in Manama, Bahrain.
Merrill Edge is an electronic trading platform and investment advisory service that provides self-directed and guided investment options for individuals and businesses. It is a subsidiary of Bank of America and was launched in 2010 after the merger between Merrill Lynch and Bank of America. Merrill Edge offers a wide range of investment products, including stocks, bonds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), margin lending, mutual funds, and options.
Equitable Bank is a Canadian bank that specializes in residential and commercial real estate lending, as well as personal banking through its digital arm, EQ Bank. Founded in 1970 as The Equitable Trust Company, it became a Schedule I Bank in 2013 and has since grown to become Canada's seventh largest bank by assets.
Open Bank is an American community bank based in California that focuses on the Korean American community. The bank offers commercial banking services.
