CREDIT LYONNAIS

major French commercial bank noted for providing financial services throughout the world and for aggressive acquisitions in the late 20th century. The bank is headquartered in Paris. Crdit Lyonnais was founded by Henri Germain on July 6, 1863, in Lyon, as a bank that would accept small deposits. Two years later its Paris branch opened; when the Franco-German War broke out in 1870, some of the bank's assets were moved to London, which initiated its first foreign branch. Expansion continued in France in the 19th century, when Paris became its base and branches opened in the Middle East, major western European cities, Russia, and India. In the four decades before 1920 it had more assets than any other bank in the world. After World War II the French government nationalized Crdit Lyonnais, along with the country's other three leading commercial banks. Among its innovations were automatic teller machines (1956) and the Carte Bleue credit card (1967). It had branches on six continents and was the largest financial institution in Europe in the 1990s, a period when it was rapidly expanding and diversifying its holdings. However, a global recession led to serious losses, and in 1995 the French government announced one of the largest bank rescue plans in history, which included the sale of many of Crdit Lyonnais's liabilities, among them the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio.