<p align="justify">Credit Agricole Group also known as “The Green Bank” because of historical ties in the farming sector. It is the largest bank of the world in terms of cooperative financial institutions. The Group is consisting of local and regional banks, and the central institute. It positions itself in the heart of consumers and serves to more than 51 million clients. The bank is operating in 47 countries across the globe. The business lines of the group support its customer’s investment and fund the environmental protection programs. The consumers of the bank are not only individuals, but associations, farmers, SMEs, artisans, multinationals, communities, and families (Credit Agricole, 2019).</p>
<p align="justify">Credit Agricole is working on both local and global banking industry. The group has to make several strategic decisions, which needs industrial analysis. Porter five forces model will help the company in determining the competition level in the industry. This five forces model helps in the external analysis of the company, by focusing on new entrants, suppliers, consumers, rivals a and substitute products. Here is a detailed Porter five forces analysis of Credit Agricole;</p>
<h2 align="justify">Bargaining Power of Buyers</h2>
<p align="justify">Bargaining power of the customers is an important force for the Bank to decide the prices for the services. Whenever the bargaining power of byers will be low, companies or groups will be in benefit. Fortunately, in case of Credit Agricole, the buying power of the individual consumers is very low. They do not have great impact on the profitability. However, multinational companies or corporate clients have the bargaining power, because they deal in huge amounts. Moreover, the Group is world’s biggest financial institutions, which means the prices are set according to quality of the services. And consumers are willing to pay for it. In the banking industry, consumers have to bear high switching cost, which restricts their bargaining power (Globenews, 2019).</p>
<h2 align="justify">Bargaining Power of Suppliers</h2>
<p align="justify">Suppliers do affect the profitability of the company. As high prices by the suppliers will increase the cost of the product to the company. Thus, lowering the profit margin. In case of Credit Agricole, suppliers’ bargaining power is limited. This mostly depend on the specification of the products the company wants. There are many suppliers for the products that banks require thus limiting the bargaining power of the suppliers. Credit Agricole manages very efficient supply chain and listed different suppliers across the globe in order to get best prices. The group maintains good relationship with its suppliers and involve them in different programs to gain more economies of scale (Annual report, 2018).</p>
<h2 align="justify">Threats of New Entrants</h2>
<p align="justify">Threats of the new entrants means high barriers of entry in the industry. This is true in banking industry, especially when big giants are already leading the industry. Credit Agricole is facing low threats from the entrants. This is mainly because of its leading position in the global market. New entrants require high capitalization in order to start its operations in the market. They also have to build strong distribution channels to function properly in the industry. Moreover, the new firms have to work hard on its marketing strategies to gain the consumers (Jurevicius, 2013).</p>
<h2 align="justify">Threats from the Substitute Products</h2>
<p align="justify">There are no direct threats from the substitute products, however, banking industry face threats from non-financial providers. many non-financial providers offer loans, mortgages, insurance, services etc. and enter in the industry. There are many multinational companies who offer insurance services in the global market. thus, giving the threat to banks. However, Credit Agricole is the largest bank of the world, and there are no such threats that the bank is facing, as it secures itself by providing multiple services in every field of finance (Credit Agricole, 2019).</p>
<h2 align="justify">Rivalry of Existing Players</h2>
<p align="justify">The major competitors of Credit Agricole are BNP Paribus, Banque Populaire, La Banque Postale, IAG, and many others. They are some of the major competitors in the banking industry, making it more competitive. Credit Agricole has to offer more differentiated products or services, in order to maintain the leading position. The Bank is growing every year in terms of revenue and engaging more customers. Credit Agricole must also expand itself more geographically and should have more marketing strategies (Globenews, 2019).</p>
<h2 align="justify">References</h2>
<p>Credit Agricole, 2019. Discover the Group. [Online], Available at: <a href="https://www.credit-agricole.com/en/group/discover-the-credit-agricole-group">https://www.credit-agricole.com/en/group/discover-the-credit-agricole-group</a>, [Accessed on: 3rd December, 2019].<br />
Credit Agricole, 2018. Annual report. [Online], Available at: file:///C:/Users/CC/Dropbox/Business%20Law/DDR-Credit-Agricole-CIB-2018-EN.pdf, [Accessed on: 3rd December, 2019].<br />
Jurevicius, O. 2013. Porter&#8217;s Five Forces. [Online], Available at: <a href="https://strategicmanagementinsight.com/tools/porters-five-forces.html">https://strategicmanagementinsight.com/tools/porters-five-forces.html</a>, [Accessed on: 3rd December, 2019].<br />
Globe news, 2019. CREDIT AGRICOLE SA: Results for the third quarter and the first nine months of 2019 : Results increasing strongly. [Online], Available at: <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2019/11/08/1943734/0/en/CREDIT-AGRICOLE-SA-Results-for-the-third-quarter-and-the-first-nine-months-of-2019-Results-increasing-strongly.html">https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2019/11/08/1943734/0/en/CREDIT-AGRICOLE-SA-Results-for-the-third-quarter-and-the-first-nine-months-of-2019-Results-increasing-strongly.html</a>, [Accessed on: 3rd December, 2019].</p>