Laurent Mignon, boss of the French banking giant BPCE, will leave the presidency of the executive board of the group to take that of the investment company Wendel, indicated the two companies on Saturday in separate press releases. After 14 years at BPCE, including four at the head of the management board, Laurent Mignon will not seek the renewal of his term of office and will succeed André François-Poncet within Wendel on January 1 at the latest, the two groups said. BPCE is now launching a “succession process” to replace Laurent Mignon.
This is the second announced departure of a manager from one of the main French banking groups this year after that of Frédéric Oudéa, who will leave Societe Generale in 2023, a bank he has managed since 2008. Then manager since 2009 of Natixis, the subsidiary of BPCE’s investment bank, Laurent Mignon succeeded François Pérol in 2018 at the head of the banking giant, which notably brings together the Banque Populaire and Caisse d’Épargne networks. His tenure was marked by the exit from the Stock Exchange of its subsidiary Natixis last year after a share buyback, with the aim of reorganizing activities by moving the insurance and payment businesses to an entity bringing together the networks Banque Populaire and Caisse d’Epargne.
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Natixis’ remaining businesses, asset and wealth management, and wholesale banking, for large companies and institutions, have been merged into a new entity called “Global Financial Services”. This suffered in the second quarter from an unfavorable market context, according to the group’s results published in August. BPCE had nevertheless recorded a profit of 1.3 billion euros in the second quarter alone. The Wendel group posted a net profit of 480 million euros in the first half, driven by the capital gain on the sale of the industrial paint company Cromology.
A graduate of HEC in 1986 and Stanford University (California), Laurent Mignon worked for Indosuez and Schroders banks, then for AGF (Assurances Générales de France) from 1997, notably holding the positions of financial director and then CEO and Chairman of the Executive Committee. Laurent Mignon was also managing partner of Oddo & Cie from 2007 to 2009.