Groupe Banque Populaire is a French group of cooperative banks. The federal union is controlled by 15 independent regional banks and also operates under the CASDEN and the Credit Cooperatif subsidiaries. In 2006, Groupe Banque Populaire created Natixis with another French cooperative banking group, Groupe Caisse d'Epargne. This new Investment Bank is the result of the spin-off of the two former Investment Banks of both groups : Banque Populaire's Natexis and Caisse d'Epargne's IXIS Corporate and Investment Bank. Then in 2009, Banque Populaire and Caisse d'Epargne groups decided to fully merge into a single company, BPCE, which became the 2nd largest banking group in France.