“It is impossible to study our history without studying our companies.”

M.L. : Companies are a reflection of our society. It is impossible to study our history without studying our companies. And it is in response to the new challenges facing our companies that BNP Paribas has now taken a stance to promote renewable energies, or, going back in time, that it promoted the development of steam power and electricity. Another real-world example: in 1953 the Bank created consumer credit, echoing the new era of homemaking. A project financed by the Bank says a lot about a given country and a given company at a given time. Company archives may seem to be of mere accounting or technical interest, but that’s not true at all! Thanks to them, BNP Paribas is as much an actor as a witness of the history of the transformations that have occurred in society and the economy worldwide, over the past two centuries. That’s why the Group attaches so much importance to the knowledge and dissemination of history and, through its Archives & History department, has endowed itself with a team of specialists dedicated to preserving and enhancing its heritage.

M.L. : Our partnerships – this congress, the Historia prize, the History YouTubers Prize, or the prize in economic history to trecognise young researchers – meet a dual objective: raising awareness among researchers and reaching out to the general public by promoting greater appreciation of archives-based history. Archives & History – these are two complementary names. We can’t do history without archives, without sources, and the notion of archives is extremely broad. Archives have always been in the form of paper files and the history library; objects, photos, posters, etc. They now also come in the of born-digital archives, such as the Group’s integrated report. Our challenges can be summed up in four Cs: counselling the Bank’s departments to identify what is indeed its historical heritage; collecting these physical and digital resources; conserving them in our preservation centres, meaning setting up all the preventive items so that this heritage can be transmitted to future generations; and, lastly, communicating and providing access to this information to the Bank’s departments and to the outside public. Original documents can be consulted in the reading rooms in Dinan, Paris, Brussels or Rome, or at exhibitions. You can also find all our productions online. Feel free to subscribe to our newsletter and to contact us with any question!