In subsequent years, Caisses d'Épargne were created in numerous French towns and cities on a decentralized basis, variously by initiative of Prefects, municipal councils, mounts of piety (traditional lending institutions overseen by the Catholic Church), and/or local religious (Catholic or Protestant) elites.

As in other parts of Europe, the original aim to serve the lifelong financial needs of the lower classes were only partially met, and the client base of the Caisses d'Épargne including many members of the emerging and affluent middle classes, including women and children, albeit with significant geographical heterogeneity.

Their legal status, under successive national savings banks laws starting in 1829, was of idiosyncratic private-sector establishments that were never associations nor commercial companies, governed by boards of co-opted volunteers.

The Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, a financial arm of the French state, was involved in the management of the collected savings from 1837,[2] and fully centralized it from 1895.

That year, the French government decided create the Caisse Nationale d'Épargne (CNE), France's first postal savings system, which competed with the existing Caisses d'Épargne by leveraging France's post office network.

Natixis went through an initial public offering on 25 October 2006, after which CNCE and BFBP each owned 35 percent of its equity capital, the rest being free float.

Natixis, however, soon suffered from poor capital allocation and risk management choices in the context of the Financial crisis of 2007–2008, including on investments into Bernie Madoff's funds.

Along with La Banque Postale and Crédit Mutuel, the bank shared the rights to offer the popular Livret A savings accounts, backed by the French government until January 1, 2009.

[11] The company suffered a €751 million derivatives trading loss in October 2008, which it blamed partly on the high market volatility at the time.