Crédit Foncier d'Algérie et de Tunisie
'Land and Agricultural Credit [Bank] of Algeria'), an Algerian affiliate of Crédit Foncier de France, and took its name CFAT in 1909 following expansion to Tunisia.
Its former overseas operations have become part of Banque Nationale d'Algérie [fr] in Algeria, Amen Bank in Tunisia, Société Générale in Morocco, and Fransabank in Lebanon.
[1]: 19-20 Even though the Crédit Foncier de France did not hold significant equity in the CFAA, it practically controlled it and was its main source of funding in the early years.
[4] In 1910 it opened a branch in Casablanca, for which it soon erected a grand building at 3, rue de Marseille (later avenue Lalla Yacout; demolished after World War II).
[3] The bank also opened branches in France outside Paris, in Marseille (1899), Nantes (1914) and Lyon (1921), as well as in London, Málaga, Palma de Mallorca, Gibraltar and Valletta in 1920.
During World War II, the CFAT's Parisian head office was cut off from its branches in London and Malta in 1940, from its operations in the Levant in 1941, and from its main North African business in late 1942, until the Liberation of Paris in 1944.
[1]: 241 Following the independence of Lebanon and Syria during World War II, the CFAT kept its branches there (in Beirut, Tripoli, Damascus, and Aleppo), complemented with new openings in Latakia (1951) and Zahlé (1955).
In 1947, however, the CFAT sold the Banque de Salonique's Greek operations, which had been severely damaged during World War II, to the Greek-owned Bank of Chios.
[2]: 265 In 1960, the CFAT created a subsidiary in Damascus, the Banque de l'Orient arabe, which took over its Syrian operations, and soon sold part of its equity to local interests; its residual 30 percent stake was nationalized in 1968.
[1]: 278 In 1959-1961, the CFAT sold much of its Tunisian network to the newly established state-owned Banque Nationale Agricole, and only kept its main urban locations in Tunis, Sfax, and Sousse.
[1]: 272 In 1967, the SCDB transferred its remaining Tunisian operations to a separate subsidiary with a new brand identity, the Crédit Foncier et Commercial de Tunisie (CFCT).
The next year, the SCDB initiated talks aiming at consolidation within Société Générale,[8] and sold its majority control of Banque de Salonique, which still had operations in Turkey, to Yapı Kredi.
