CrŽdit Agricole Group is the leading financial partner to the French economy and one of the largest banking groups in Europe. It is the leading retail bank in Europe as well as the first European asset manager, the first bancassurer in Europe and the third European player in project finance. Built on its strong cooperative and mutual roots, its 145,000 employees and the 31,000 directors of its Local and Regional Banks, CrŽdit Agricole Group is a responsible and responsive bank serving 52 million customers, 9.3 million mutual shareholders and 1.1 million individual shareholders. Thanks to its universal customer-focused retail banking model Ð based on the cooperation between its retail banks and their related business lines Ð, CrŽdit Agricole Group supports its customersÕ projects in France and around the world: insurance, real estate, payments, asset management, leasing and factoring, consumer finance, corporate and investment banking. CrŽdit Agricole also stands out for its dynamic, innovative corporate social responsibility policy, for the benefit of the economy. This policy is based on a pragmatic approach which permeates across the Group and engages each employee.