Paris History Project : Crédit Foncier de France

Location: Corner Rue des Capucines and Boulevard des Capucines

English Translation

"The two buildings occupied by Crédit Foncier since 1854 and 1858 were built on land sold by Guillaume Leduc in 1719. Tannevot built them: No. 15 for the tax farmer Louis-Philippe Des Vieux, a former director of the French East India Company, and No. 17-19 for François Castanier, also a director of the French East India Company. Authorised by decree on March 28, 1852 under the name of Banque Foncière de Paris, Crédit Foncier de France was originally a lending society taking mortgage guarantees on the real estate of its borrowers. In 1860, its remit was extended to include loans to municipalities and departments, and then to various operations of national interest awarded by the French government." (Translated by DeepL and ChatGPT)

Background notes

Tannevot refers to Michel Tannevot (c. 1685-1762), a talented architect admitted to the Royal Academy of Architecture in 1718. He designed and built the two hotels for Des Vieux and Castanier.
Louis-Philippe Des Vieux, who originally owned no. 15 Rue des Capucines was a "tax farmer", meaning he was part of a system in pre-Revolutionary France where private individuals, known as "tax farmers," would pay the government a fixed sum for the right to collect taxes and were allowed to keep any surplus, often using abusive methods, which led to widespread resentment.
The French East India Company, re-established by Jean-Baptiste Colbert under the reign of Louis XIV in 1664, was a state-backed trading company similar to the British East India Company, founded in 1600. Both companies were involved in colonial trading, especially in the lucrative markets of the East Indies (Southeast Asia and India). However, the French company faced competition from the British, and despite its initial success, it was eventually dissolved in 1794 during the French Revolution.
On March 28, 1852, Napoleon III decreed the establishment of the Banque Foncière de Paris (later called the Crédit Foncier de France), launched by two Polish men, Louis Wolowski and Count Xavier Branicki. The bank was established to respond to the need for more structured and reliable sources of real estate financing. It was part of broader reforms to stimulate the economy and support urban development, including the modernisation of Paris.
"Foncier" means "related to land or real estate". It comes from the word "fonds" (land). In the context of the bank's name, it reflects its core business of providing financial services related to property, specifically mortgages and loans secured by land.
In 1860, the bank's remit was changed, allowing it to lend to municipalities and departments, thereby extending its services beyond individual property owners to government instrumentalities. This reflected the growing importance of financial institutions in the context of the Haussmannian renovations of the 1850s and 1860s, and in the development of modern Paris.
Today, Crédit Foncier’s activities are fully integrated into Groupe BPCE, and it no longer operates as an independent entity. Its historic headquarters on Rue des Capucines were also sold to the Emir of Qatar in 2003, for 250 million euros.