This marks the maturity of our governance

The Supervisory Board of BPCE yesterday appointed two independent directors, to replace the representatives of the State. François Pérol, President of the Executive Board, wants to make an example of the new practices of governance of the group.

After the departure of the two directors of the State in the Council, what changes are anticipated in terms of governance

The Supervisory Board held yesterday fired all the consequences of this new stage. It was decided unanimously to propose to the General Assembly to be held on 16 December next to appoint two new directors that we have adequate independent: Maryse Aulagnon, who is the President of the publicly traded real estate company refines and Marie-Christine Lombard, CEO of the Dutch company TNT Express. They will bring to the Board their experiences of entrepreneurs and their economic and financial skills. These appointments, bringing to four the number of women in the Council and the number of independent directors, conducted with the support of all the shareholders of the group are the Banques Populaires and Caisses d'Epargne, and after a process led by the Council appointments Committee, according to the best standards of corporate governance.

That is that this will change for the Group

This is a turning point for us. This marks the maturity of our governance. I would remind you that BPCE is not listed, we do not have the obligation to appoint independent directors. Our desire is to show that BPCE is a co-operative Group perfectly able to assimilate a functioning modern and exemplary of its supervisory board. In total, the Board will be composed of seven representatives of the Banques Populaires, seven representatives of the Caisses d'Epargne and four independent directors. Moreover, Maryse Aulagnon and Marie-Christine Lombard will incorporate, one, the Committee of the appointments and remuneration, the other, the audit committee, each consisting of six members and is chaired by an independent administrator. Laurence Danon chairs the Nominating Committee and Marwan Lahoud the audit committee.

Are there other changes

The Supervisory Board will propose to the Assembly to amend the Statute of the group. The current statutes, built on the basis of the presence of the State, needed us a qualified majority of fifteen directors on eighteen to validate major decisions. We want to reduce this threshold to twelve directors.

Why is it you who advertise these changes relating to the Supervisory Board

These changes have been prepared, discussed and adopted by the leaders of the Banques Populaires and Caisses d'Epargne. I am simply the spokesman of a unanimous decision.

In this context, plan new to accelerate the repayment of the State

With regard to non-voting shares, there remains 1.2 billion to repay on the loaned 3 billion. Our intention is to have repaid the entire before the end of the year 2012 and as fast as allows the improvement of the solvency of the group. From this point of view, the progress is important since the "core Tier-1" Fund own hard rose from 6.4 in June 2009, at 7.7 in September 2010. With regard to subordinate securities, which are not assimilated to "core Tier-1", we expect to repay or refinance by end 2012.