Crédit Industriel et Commercial (CIC) is a financial services group in France, founded in 1859[1] With its parent-company, Crédit Mutuel it is the fourth largest bank in the country. CIC alone has 1,890 branches and over 24,000 employees serving over 3.6 million customers[2] The company offers savings accounts, mortgages, and loans; it also owns stakes in specialised entities involved in private banking, asset management, leasing, securities brokerage, and property/casualty insurance.[3]
In 2010 the French government's Autorité de la concurrence (the department in charge of regulating competition) fined eleven banks, including Crédit Industriel et Commercial, the sum of 384,900,000 Euros for colluding to charge unjustified fees on check processing, especially for extra fees charged during the transition from paper check transfer to "Exchanges Check-Image" electronic transfer. [4][5]