If you go to Bombay... or Perpignan, you will find the CNEP

Since the 19th century, the Comptoir National d’Escompte de Paris (CNEP) has had a network abroad supporting the sales affiliates, which partially contributed to its pre-war success.

This poster titled “If you go to Bombay… or Perpignan, you will find the CNEP” promotes the CNEP’s international roots. A rather rare event, the institution opened its first agencies in Asia before opening branches in France. In 1860 it set up in Calcutta and Shanghai, followed by Bombay and Hong Kong in 1862. As early as 1885, CNEP established a presence in Madagascar where seven agencies and sub-agencies organised the local banking service. In 1881, the CNEP set up in Melbourne and Sydney in order to accompany French importers of Australian wool.

In the United States, the bank was present in San Francisco from 1877 and two agencies opened in Chicago and New Orleans in 1893 and 1894. CNEP also set up in the emerging colonial empire: in Tunisia in 1893 and in Morocco in 1897.