...Of Europe's top 20 banks, four are French. France's banking system is concentrated, with the top six banks controlling around 80% of the country's retail deposits. Although still a highly rated banking system, the current financial crisis has taken its toll. Only Banque FTdTrative du CrTdit Mutuel (BFCM), the issuing vehicle for CrTdit Mutuel Centre Est Europe (CMCEE), has survived with its ratings unaltered through the current crisis. Fitch Ratings has downgraded the ratings of France's five other top banks, either their LongTerm (LT) Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) or the Individual Ratings, or both. The most sweeping positive impact, however, came in April 2009, when the Support Rating Floors (see below) assigned to the country's leading banks were raised to `A+' from `A-' (raised to `A+' from `BBB+' in the case of BFCM). Currently, however, only the LT IDRs assigned to Groupe Caisse d'Epargne (GCE), Groupe Banque Populaire (GBP) and Natixis, which will all be part of one group by endJune...
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