BPCE becomes TotalEnergies’ leading French bank in 2024 #FrenchFinance

In 2024, TotalEnergies raised $9.9 billion on financial markets, the largest amount it had sought since 2020. The company was in particular supported by Banque Populaire Caisse d’Epargne (BPCE) group, which helped TotalEnergies obtain more than 2/3 of this sum through bonds. This made BPCE the leading French bank in terms of support for TotalEnergies in 2024, knocking Crédit Agricole and BNP Paribas from the top spots for the first time. This reflects BPCE’s weak climate policies which, like Société Générale, are lagging behind Crédit Agricole and BNP Paribas.

TotalEnergie increased its oil and gas production targets in 2024, up to 3% per year by 2030, despite the recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).[1] To support this increase, the company issued three lots of bonds on financial markets. These investments, facilitated by banks, accounted for 73.6% of its financing between 2016 and 2024, and were the company’s only source of financing in 2024. [2]

TotalEnergies now has 47 active bonds, totaling $48.2 billion.[3] These bonds have had to secure increasingly longer maturities over years. A study by AFII showed that TotalEnergies bonds issued between January 2020 and April 2024 had an average maturity period of 22 years, compared to an average of 6 years for those issued between 2000 and 2004, with a continuous increase between these periods.[4] The company has since confirmed this trend by issuing six bonds with maturities ranging from 8 to 40 years, as well as two “perpetual” bonds – issued without a maturity date and generating interest payments until they are redeemed by the issuer.

Source: Bloomberg, March 2025

These bonds are advantageous for TotalEnergies’ financing, because of their duration and because they can be used unconditionally. Indeed, TotalEnergies can use these funds for anything and including for the development of new oil and gas projects.

It was this flexibility that prompted Crédit Agricole and BNP Paribas, to announce in 2024 that they will no longer issue bonds for oil and gas project developers.[5] By doing so, they acknowledged that such financing is not compatible with the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Net Zero Emissions (NZE) scenario. Crédit Agricole and BNP Paribas have been TotalEnergies’ top two banks since the signing of the Paris Agreement, respectively providing the company with $6.4 billion and $5.9 billion since 2016.[6]

TotalEnergies also received support from other banks with lower climate standards. In 2024, 15 banks supported the company in issuing bonds, four of them doing so twice. Bank of America, BPCE and SMBC were involved in issuing TotalEnergies bonds for $6.9 billion in total, and HSBC supported bonds worth $5.6 billion. The BPCE group has therefore become the French bank providing the most finance to TotalEnergies in 2024, which is the logical consequence of its weak requirements for the fossil fuel industry. Unlike other French banks, BPCE still has not ruled out direct financing for new gas fields, or financing for some liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals.[7]

Source: Bloomberg, March 2025

By the end of 2026, 8 more TotalEnergies bonds will mature, leading the company to repay more than $4 billion.[8] It could seek to issue new bonds in order to finance its climate-wrecking projects.

Reclaim Finance is therefore calling on banks, including BPCE and Société Générale, to urgently commit not to participate in new bonds or any other financing for oil and gas companies such as TotalEnergies.