Eugène Péreire founded Banque Transatlantique in 1881, and today it is one of France's oldest private banks.Eugène Péreire, son of Isaac Péreire, founded Banque Transatlantique in 1881; it had 609 shareholders and total assets in excess of 50,000,000 francs. He created the bank in response to the French government's decision to cease state funding of transatlantic ventures. Thus, Pereire formed a private bank to complement his main management stake in the shipping line Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, which he and his brothers had founded in 1855 as the Compagnie Générale Maritime.