Drawing on this experience to promote lending to small family farms, the Act of 5 November 1894, which had the support of the Minister for Agriculture Jules Méline, paved the way for the creation of Crédit Agricole's local banks.

In the early years, business consisted exclusively of short-term loans provided as advances on harvests, enabling farmers to live more comfortably.

However, the government continued to provide three-quarters of the funding, and short-term lending still accounted for the lion's share of business despite the authorisation to issue long-term loans granted by the Acts of 29 December 1906 and 19 March 1910.

With some regions becoming isolated owing to the War, the need for a central bank to regulate business became more apparent, especially as Crédit Agricole was asked to provide financing to rebuild farming operations damaged during the conflict.

The following year, Crédit Agricole provided additional support by financing wheat stocks through discounting when the National Cereals Board (ONIC) was established.

[11] To finance the post-war reconstruction and encourage the mechanisation of farming, CNCA stepped up deposit-taking to supplement the funds provided by the government.

[8] In 1959, Crédit Agricole was authorised by decree to finance property loans for primary residences in rural areas, irrespective of the status of the owner (even non-farmers).

[12] In 1966, as part of efforts to boost savings and remove Crédit Agricole from its budget, the government gave CNCA financial autonomy.

The Banking Reform of 1966 allowed the organisation to offer households the same products as those provided by competitors, including passbook accounts and home savings plans.

[14] The first subsidiaries were set up at the end of the 1960s to address the specific needs of CNCA: Union d'études et d'investissements (UI) was created in 1967 to make equity investments, followed by Segespar for asset management in 1968, and Unicrédit to grant loans to food producers in 1971.

In 1976, the group adopted the slogan "le bon sens près de chez vous" ("common sense close to home").

In 1990, Crédit Agricole lost the monopoly on granting low-interest loans to farmers and one year later, in 1991, the "normalisation" process was completed as it was allowed to begin financing large corporations.

In 1993, Lucien Douroux, who led the plan to mutualise FNCA, became CNCA's first chief executive officer,[20] having been appointed by Crédit Agricole from existing staff.

In 1999, diversification continued as the group took a stake in the newly privatised Crédit Lyonnais, and acquired leading consumer finance company Sofinco.

By now, the group was the number-one bank in France with 28% of the domestic market, the global number-two by revenues and number-ten by profits, according to Fortune magazine,[21] and number-15 worldwide according to Forbes rankings.

At the end of 2008, the government decided to loan France's six largest banks €21 billion in two tranches, at an interest rate of 8%, to enable them to continue to play their role in the economy.

The Greek branch Emporiki was separated from its profitable wealthy parts in Albania, Bulgaria and Romania which were integrated into the Crédit Agricole group.

[27] In March 2014, the Crédit Agricole Group unveiled its medium-term strategic plan,[28][29] which put the emphasis on retail banking, insurance and saving.

The regional banks own 54% of Crédit Agricole S.A., which in turn holds 25% of their capital in the form of non-voting cooperative securities (certificats coopératifs d'associés).

An internal debate is continually underway on striking a balance between growing activities that serve the regional banks directly and promoting businesses that lie outside their sphere.

The cooperative investment certificates of 15 regional banks, and the shares of Crédit Agricole S.A., the group holding company, are listed on the Paris stock exchange.