HSBC Picardie

Banque de Picardie (now HSBC Picardie) resulted from the merger of three different establishments whose origins can be traced back to the mid 19th century: Banque Brière, Banque Mélinot and Banque Mercier.

The oldest of the three, Banque Brière, was founded in Noyon in 1854 under the name Caisse commerciale de l'arrondissement de Compiègne, Léon Brière et Cie. It was created to finance and carry out commercial transactions for local companies, manufacturers and farmers. As the only financial establishment in the region, it also offered deposit banking services. Its clientele consisted mainly of small businesses, merchants, craftsmen and some farming industries (notably sugar mills).

In 1956, the bank changed its name to Banque Brière et Cie and its legal form to that of a public limited company. In the 1950s and 1960s, it expanded its commercial network, previously confined to the Oise, as far as the Aisne, and invested in the real estate sector. At the time it employed about fifty people.

Regional expansion required the bank to seek out partners, so in 1977, Banque Brière accepted an offer by the group Ancienne Mutuelle, a shareholder in Banque de Financement pour le Commerce et l'Industrie (BFCI) and Banque Mélinot, to create a bank in the Picard region.

Banque Mélinot was originally an investment bank founded by Eugène Mélinot in Amiens in 1904. In 1938, Eugène Mélinot and his son Roger founded Banque Mélinot et Cie, expanding its activities to include all types of banking transactions. Its aim was not to seek out the business of large companies, but rather to offer the best possible services to individual customers, merchants and craftsmen in the city of Amiens.

At the end of World War II, Banque Mélinot et Cie began targeting self-employed professionals and small industrial and farming companies, in addition to its regular clientele. In the 1950s the bank employed about ten people, and while it accounted for no more than 1% of the local market, Roger Mélinot nevertheless chaired the Local Banking Committee and was one of the founders of the Office Commercial des Banques Privées (OCBP).

By the 1960s and 1970s, Banque Mélinot had close to 1,000 customers, nearly all of whom were individuals.
In 1961, it absorbed the staff and clientele of the investment bank Piolé, founded in 1869. To resolve the financing issue raised by the regulatory requirement to increase the capital, the Mélinot family decided in 1977 to sell the majority of its shares to the Ancienne Mutuelle Group. The merger of Banque Mélinot with Banque de Picardie (formerly Banque Brière) took place on September 18, 1979.

Banque Mercier was the third establishment to merge with Banque de Picardie.
Founded in Senlis in 1885 by Ernest Mercier, it operated mainly in the Senlis region and its clientele primarily consisted of landowners, farmers, merchants and noteworthy local residents. Ernest Mercier turned over the reins to his son Maurice in 1923. When he died in 1934, his wife Antoinette Mercier took over. She teamed up with her son-in-law, Antoine Potel and in 1952 Banque Mercier became a public limited company.

Under the leadership of Antoine Potel, the bank was modernised in the 1960s and began expanding its clientele to include regional SMEs. In the 1960s and 1970s, Banque Mercier took on a more regional scale thanks to the more favourable economic environment of the times. However, the bank was weakened by its successive capital increases. The family-controlled group therefore decided to find a partner, and in 1987, CCF and Banque de Picardie took over the business.

Banque de Picardie arose in the 1970s from the merger of Ancienne Mutuelle Group and Banque de Financement pour le Commerce et l'Industrie (BFCI).
With a view to gaining a foothold in the Picardie region, the group bought stakes in local banks Banque Mélinot and Banque Brière in 1976 and 1977. The branches continued operating under the name Banque Brière through to 1979.
Headed by Jacques Pillet-Will, the bank took the name Banque de Picardie in February of the same year.

CCF became the core shareholder of Banque de Picardie in 1986. The following year, it further expanded its regional coverage by integrating Banque Mercier (Senlis region).
Banque de Picardie became a subsidiary of CCF in 1999. Like CCF, UBP and the Banque Hervet branches in the Paris region, all 16 Banque de Picardie branches began operating under the name HSBC in November 2005.