2023-06-28 19:49:48
Agreement reached, “exclusive” negotiations open: BNP Paribas is on track to take over the customers of Orange Bank, the subsidiary dedicated to financial services of the telecom operator, AFP learned on Wednesday from concordant sources.
The board of directors of Orange has indeed given “its agreement to enter into exclusive negotiations” with the first French bank, in order to define “a referencing partnership” concerning the customer portfolio of Orange Bank in France, according to a source close to the file.
Asked by AFP, Orange and BNP Paribas did not wish to react immediately.
The future of the Orange bank, launched with great fanfare by former CEO Stéphane Richard in 2017 on the basis of the banking activities freshly acquired from the insurer Groupama, had been on hold for several months.
The new general manager, Christel Heydemann, had indeed announced at the beginning of the year a “strategic review” on the future of the subsidiary dedicated to financial services, usual paraphrase when it is planned to sell or close a branch of business.
It must be said that the subsidiary dedicated to financial services had been in the red since its creation. Last year alone, the financial services activity that oversees Orange Bank suffered a loss of 200 million euros.
– A world of synergies –
Orange Bank, which claimed 3.1 million customers in Europe and Africa at the end of March 2023, aims to close this activity in France and Spain by 2025-2026, with “the intention of withdrawing from the market of retail banking”, according to the same source.
Since the beginning of the week, several walkouts by Orange Bank employees, worried about their future, have taken place. The “priority” of Orange management will be to propose a reclassification of all staff within the Orange group, according to a source familiar with the matter.
After shedding OCS and Orange Studio last January, Orange’s objective is to refocus its activities, in accordance with the strategic plan.
On the BNP Paribas side, it is a question of accelerating the development of its in-house online bank, Hello Bank!.
Other BNP Paribas businesses should benefit from this agreement, such as insurance. The two companies are already partners in this business via BNP Paribas Cardif.
Synergies can also be imagined in consumer credit, hosted by BNP Personal Finance and marketed under the Cetelem brand, in France and Spain.
Links also exist between the head of the two groups: the president of Orange Jacques Aschenbroich is a director of BNP Paribas, in charge, among other things, of ethics and appointments.
The decision was taken without his presence, said a source close to management.
– Scenario “à la ING” –
This operation, if it succeeds, will not be a takeover strictly speaking.
It should result in an attractive offer made by BNP Paribas to Orange Bank customers, something to recall the agreement reached a year and a half ago between Societe Generale and ING, the latter seeking to withdraw from the French market.
The online banking subsidiary of Société Générale, Boursorama had, thanks to a preferential offer, been able to recover 315,000 ING customers in a few months, or around two thirds of eligible customers.
In the online banking segment, it is moreover Boursorama, profitable in the first quarter of 2023, which is in the lead with its some 5 million customers.
For comparison, Hello Bank! claims 800,000, six times less.
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