Crédit Agricole Group (French: [kʁedi aɡʁikɔl]), sometimes called La banque verte (English: The green bank) due to its historical ties to farming, is a French international banking group and the world's largest cooperative financial institution.In the second half of the 19th century, French farmers struggled to obtain long-term, flexible, reasonably-priced credit. There were several attempts to set up farming banks, including Crédit Foncier de France in 1861, but none was successful.