Clear market leader in the French retail banking sector, where the bank generates good earnings. Diversified businesses and income sources. Sound earnings and cooperative status support internal capital generation. Relatively high economic risk--albeit reducing--in Italy, which the group considers to be its second home market. In line with the rest of the industry, the low interest rate environment is weighing on margins, constraining the group's efforts to improve efficiency somewhat. The stable outlook reflects our expectation that Groupe Crédit Agricole (GCA) will continue to build our measure of its additional loss-absorbing capacity (ALAC) such that it exceeds 4.5% by end-2018. It also reflects our expectation that the bank will continue to demonstrate a sound capacity to generate internal capital through
