The major French bank wants to double its number of customers in Germany by 2028 and is relying on a universal banking model.
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The German banking market is considered highly competitive, but continues to attract foreign players due to high private financial assets.
Germany's banks are facing further competition from abroad in their already tight home market: The major French bank Crédit Agricole wants to double the number of its private customers in this country to two million by the end of 2028 with new offers.
The Frankfurt institute announced that a fundamental component of the growth strategy would be the development of a universal bank with a comprehensive offering that supports private customers in all phases of life. “Building on our more than 70-year presence in the country, we are opening a new chapter by implementing our universal banking model in Europe’s largest economy,” says Crédit Agricole boss Olivier Gavalda.
Wide product range planned
Initially, the institute wants to offer German private customers a digital checking account and investment products such as daily money and fixed-term deposits. Later, products and services for wealth creation, retirement planning and loan offers will complete the offering. Initially, 20 bank branches are planned in major cities with 600 employees. They come from the previous subsidiary Creditplus, which is absorbed into Crédit Agricole Deutschland.
According to its own information, Crédit Agricole is the largest banking group in Europe and the ninth largest in the world in terms of the number of customers. Crédit Agricole has been operating in Germany for more than 70 years and already employs more than 2,000 people in this country.
Germany is an attractive market for banks
The French are not the only foreign players increasingly vying for private customers in Germany. The major Spanish bank BBVA launched in this country in June 2025 and caused a stir with an interest rate lure offer. Since May, the major US bank JPMorgan Chase has been attracting customers in Germany with its digital private customer bank Chase.
Customer deposits continue to represent a cheap source of financing. And the German market is considered an attractive place: at the end of the first quarter of 2026, the financial assets of private households in this country totaled around 9,490 billion euros, according to figures from the Bundesbank. More than a third of these (37.4 percent) are cash and deposits such as overnight money.
AI outlook — possibilities, not facts
Opening of 20 bank branches in major German cities.
Very likely · Within months
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