The merger of Crédit Agricole and Crédit Lyonnais could result in as many as 5,000 redundancies in corporate and investment banking as the French banking groups seek to increase the profitability of their combined activities.

An analyst presentation that followed the merger announcement revealed that the commercial banking teams outside of France would be worst affected as the bank attempts to "significantly lower its cost base through rationalisation". Of the €760m ($780m) in forecast cost synergies within two years, the vast majority are expected to come from corporate and investment banking, where the combined group hopes to saves €490m a year.