Credit Agricole’s private banking business saw assets under management grow by €5.2 billion ($6.4 billion) in the first half of 2005. Total ...

Credit Agricole’s private banking business saw assets under management grow by €5.2 billion ($6.4 billion) in the first half of 2005. Total assets under management within the group’s private banking businesses now stand at €73 billion. The French bank said around 60 per cent of those assets are located outside of France and the rest within the country. Total assets under management, including the bank’s institutional and retail business, gained around €21 billion in inflows in the first half of 2005. “Most new inflows were focused on bonds and alternative funds,” the bank said in its results statement. The bank added that it has created a division of the asset management business line called CASAM which combines the expertise of CAAM and investment banking unit Calyon in structured products which launched in September. The 2005 financial year is the first full year since the acquisition of rival Credit Lyonnais was finalised. The group’s total net income came in at €960 million, a rise of 6.1 per cent year-on-year. “All the profitability targets set at the time of the offer for Credit Lyonnais were exceeded in the first half of the year,” said chief executive Jean Laurent.