Les banques de l’économie sociale en France : perspectives historiques

Abstract

The mutual banks in France : historical perspectives At the end of the 19th century, some economic sectors in France didn’t have access to the banking system and were hindered in their development. At the end of the 20th century, mutual banks represent the major part of the French financial sector. Specialised in the retail banking, they well adapted themselves to the bancarisation. While at the end of the 19th century the mutual banking sector represented only a second best, it is not any more the case today. It is an attractive, developing and dynamic sector. But, the development of the mutual financial sector was difficult and the object of this article is to wonder about the different phases of this banking growth in order to measure the adaptation’s ability of this structure to a very unstable situation. JEL classifications : G21, L2, N2