La Poste battles for top spot

France has a fragmented market for retail structured products: eight distribution networks share 50% of the business by volume. But the top three players in the market are well established. They are the two big savings banks, Caisse d’Epargne and Crédit Agricole, and the French post office – La Poste – with around 10,000 branches actively selling structured products.

In 2003, La Poste was the single largest issuer in the market. But in 2004 it slipped to third place, with a market share dropping to 5%, according to La Poste’s own numbers, while Caisse D’Epargne had 8% and Crédit Agricole 7%. Jean-Hubert Blanchet, La Poste’s head of structured products, wants to reinstall his business as the market leader. “The competition is intensifying and growth of market share is becoming more important,” Blanchet says. “To get back to first position in 2005