Annual report 2009 - Crédit Agricole CIB

Statement of the Senior country officerOur performance in 2009 continued to feel the effects of the global economic andfinancial crisis which has severely impacted the real economy worldwide, includingthe Czech Republic.Under this new environment, we followed the re-focus strategy of our groupCALYON under the 4 main goals:1 – re-focus our business on the key business lines2 – reduce our risk profile3 – concentrate our development on our existing clients4 – reduce our costs.Although these were already the core focus of our local strategy, we havereinforced our activities under these specific criteria.A closer follow up of some of our clients did not lead us to create furtherimpairment provisions and the current quality of our portfolio makes us reasonablyoptimistic about this field for the current year.During the first quarter of 2010, an important step was undertaken by our groupCredit Agricole to re-brand its Corporate and Investment Bank subsidiaries andbranches from CALYON to Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bankworldwide. The change in name was effective in Czech Republic on 1 April 2010.This change in name confirms the strategy and the full support of our group tocontinue to invest and develop under its global brand, as well as its corporate andinvestment banking activities.We are confident that Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank CzechRepublic, with the full support of Group Crédit Agricole, being one of the majorinternational banking institutions, and thanks to the professionalism of its staff, willcontinue to strengthen its activities and market share alongside an improvedprofitability of our operations in the Czech Republic.There were no events, which have occurred subsequent to the year end until thedate of preparation of this annual report, which would have a material impacton the financial statements and the annual report of our bank as at 31 December2009 and would require additional disclosure.On behalf of the Management committee, I wish to extend our thanks to all theclients of the bank for their support and loyalty as well as to all the employees ofthe bank for their valuable contributions.Thierry HebraudSenior country officer(3)