French bank CCF to cut more than 1,000 jobs, sources say

By Bertrand De Meyer

PARIS (Reuters) -French retail bank Credit Commercial de France (CCF), backed by investment firm Cerberus Capital Management, plans to cut more than 1,000 jobs, or about a third of its workforce, three union sources told Reuters on Thursday.

CCF’s management at a works council on Wednesday presented a first version of the plan that would lead to the closing of 90 to 110 branches and a reduction of between 1,000 and 1,200 jobs, said one of the sources present at the meeting.

This would represent the closure of almost half of CCF’s branches and the departure of a third of the employees, another of the sources said.

At the start of the year, CCF had a total of 244 branches and employed about 3,500 people.

CCF is a subsidiary of My Money Group, owned by Cerberus, which completed the acquisition of the French retail bank from HSBC in early 2024.

“CCF is an extremely solid bank, which we have stabilised since its rebirth in January 2024, and which now needs to be relaunched in order to return to the path of sustainable growth,” a spokesperson for CCF said.

CCF is reviewing a plan to give branch managers greater room to manage their branches, the spokesperson said, with potential consequences on staff numbers and on the number of branches.

The spokesperson declined to confirm the figures provided by the union sources.

Cerberus didn’t immediately reply to a request seeking comment.

HSBC agreed to sell its French retail bank to My Money Group in 2021. At the time, the British bank said the deal would lead to a loss of around $2.3 billion.

The disposal was part of a retreat from slow-growing European and North American markets where it has struggled against larger domestic players.

(Reporting by Bertrand de Meyer, Additional reporting by Mathieu Rosemain, editing by Tassilo Hummel, Kirsten Donovan)