Crédit Foncier

Crédit Foncier de France (CFF) wants to be more than just your basic bank. The company, one of France's top mortgage specialist banks, finances real estate transactions and offers real estate investment planning and advice to consumers and corporate clients. Subsidiary Compagnie de Financement Foncier is a leading private bond issuer in France; other units specialize in property valuation and commercial real estate such as offices, shopping centers, and warehouses. CFF operates primarily in its home country, although it facilitates real estate transactions worldwide. The company is owned by La Caisse Nationale des Caisses d'Epargne et de Prévoyance.

Crédit Foncier de France is a national mortgage bank of France. A subsidiary of the Groupe Caisse d'Epargne, its headquarters are located in Charenton, 100 meters outside the Paris city limits.

History

The Crédit Foncier initially made loans to communes. It was formed by Emperor Napoléon III in an attempt to modernize the medieval French banking system and expand French investment outside Europe. The Crédit Foncier had a monopoly on mortgages.

In modern banking terminology a "credit foncier" loan is a loan for a fixed period with regular repayments where each repayment includes components of both principal and interest, such that at the end of the period the principal will have been entirely repaid. This is to be contrasted with an "interest only" loan where the repayments are of interest only.