Developments in the 20th century
During World War I it helped the French government raise funds through war loans, the 'Bons de la Défense Nationale', and it played its part in negotiations to open credit accounts for the French Treasury in Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Sweden. It also helped to raise finance for the weapons industry (Compagnie Nationale de Matières Colorantes et de Produits Chimiques).[5]
The impact of inflation during the 1920s, combined with the reconstruction effort and moves to expand the bank's activities under the guidance of Horace Finaly (at the head of the bank from 1919 to 1937) led to an increase in the banks capital and further investment in industrial concerns and public utilities.
World War II eroded its capital and the bank was cut off from its affiliates and correspondent banking partners in the allied countries. It lost a portion of its foreign assets in Central Europe and Norway. Nevertheless, it helped in the development of industrial patents for such products as alternative fuels, gas producing substances and oil-shale.
Its merchant-banking profile had enabled it to sidestep nationalization in 1945 and Paribas was able to take full advantage of the legislation of 2 December 1945 and 17 May 1946, which ratified the status of a full-service bank. The bank was thus poised to develop its activities freely in commercial banking for French companies and, before long, on an international scale.[5]
The 1960s to 1980 saw Paribas start an investment bank in New York which it expanded into an internal banking network with offices in a number of countries and started an asset management services to private and institutional clients.[5] Claude de Kemoularia was an important executive in the bank during this period. It also directs its activity towards businesses and participates in the development and restructuring of French industry including names such as Bull, CSF, Thomson.
The bank was nationalized in 1982 by the government led by Pierre Mauroy under President François Mitterrand, as part of a wave of nationalization that included five major industrial companies, thirty-nine depository banks, and the two investment banks Indosuez and Paribas. That same year, the bank adopted its longstanding telegraph address "Paribas" for its brand and corporate identity. Paribas was re-privatized in January 1987 by the government led by Jacques Chirac.
In 1998, Paribas acquired the Compagnie Bancaire and subsequently renamed itself Compagnie Financière de Paribas.
In 1999, Banque Nationale de Paris and Société Générale fought a complex battle on the stock market, with Société Générale bidding for Paribas and BNP bidding for Société Générale and counter-bidding for Paribas. BNP's bid for Société Générale failed, but its bid for Paribas succeeded. As a consequence, the merger of BNP and Paribas was completed one year later, on 22 May 2000, forming BNP Paribas.
