Competition: Conditional approval given to latest aid plan for Crédit Lyonnais

United Kingdom

The Commission has approved the supplementary aid granted by France to Crédit Lyonnais in addition to the aid already authorised in 1995 and 1996. The aid is approved on condition that Crédit Lyonnais reduces its balance sheet in Europe and world-wide, over and above the reductions imposed on the bank in 1995, i.e. a total reduction in its balance sheet of more than a third since 31 December 1994. Also, the bank will have to reduce the number of its branches in France, while the French government has committed itself to privatise the bank by October 1999. After privatisation, the bank's expansion will remain limited to 3.2% per year up to 2001 and it will have to distribute 58% of its net surplus in the form of dividends until the year 2003.