Éric Lombard was reappointed head of the Caisse des dépôts et consignations (CDC) on January 11. What to enjoy until his 68th birthday, May 16, 2026, one of the most beautiful views of the Seine in Paris. He is also the only officer to be able to serve more than one term since the Caisse’s governance reform. He reveals his roadmap to the JDD. To the extent of the “armed wing” of the state he leads. The CDC manages the pensions of one in five French people; holds 66% of La Poste, 50% of the public bank Bpifrance, 49.9% of RTE, the manager of the electricity transmission network, and 66% of the transport group Transdev; and has invested nearly 35 billion euros in CAC 40 groups.
What are you going to do during your second term?
My first objective is to succeed in the ecological transformation of our economy and our society. We are going to commit 80 billion euros in equity and loans over the next three years to achieve a zero carbon trajectory by 2050. Useful financing is transforming our country. We must develop renewable energies and mobilize several billions to finance future nuclear power plants. We must also decarbonize what already exists in industry, buildings, public transport, small railway lines and future metropolitan RERs. Our second priority concerns regaining sovereignty in energy, industry, satellites and the cloud. Finally, we will continue to fight once morest territorial and social fractures.
Since your arrival, what have been your major achievements?
The creation of the Territory Bank. It has proven to be a formidable tool for decentralizing decisions, which was unanimously underlined by parliamentarians. The other source of satisfaction is the rapprochement with La Poste, which allows us to accumulate a financial capacity of 1,300 billion euros, half of our national wealth.
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At 3%, the Livret A will allow us to build 17,000 homes
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What is the CDC’s annual financial capacity?
We can invest in capital 5 billion euros per year in companies, infrastructures and semi-public companies and lend around 20 billion euros. In reality, we lack more projects than resources.
Do you have new levers to achieve your objectives?
Our main lever is the Territory Bank, in conjunction with local authorities for the development of wasteland or the portage of land. We also carry out many actions with companies in collaboration with Bpifrance. In this regard, we are contributing to reindustrialization and creating jobs through dozens of projects such as the “gigafactories” in Hauts-de-France, the rehabilitation of the Kodak wasteland in Chalon-sur-Saône or our investment in the unicorn Ynsect in Amiens.
What impact will a booklet A remunerated at 3% from February 1 have for the CDC, which houses one in five French people?
Housing is the first concern of the French. At 3%, the 350 billion booklet A will bring savers more than life insurance, which today serves interest of 2% on average. The Governor of the Banque de France made this proposal to support social housing. This will allow us to build 17,000 homes and rehabilitate 58,000.
Is the system of partial payment by employees of the cost of the personal training account, which you manage, abandoned?
The CPF is another element of pride, a real revolution in the training sector. It is acclaimed by 6 million French people and by more and more employees, women and workers, whereas for a long time it only benefited executives. The measures taken should avoid activating partial ownership by CPF beneficiaries.
Have you managed to curb CPF fraud?
They are in sharp decline. The law prohibiting cold calling in terms of training and the various measures to improve the quality of training and the security of the application should allow us to save around 500 million euros per year. We have also, with the State, cleaned up the training organizations that do not meet certain criteria.
What future for La Poste?
Like that of an actor who acts to preserve the human being throughout the territory through its 270,000 employees, including 170,000 postal workers. These are bearers of social ties when they distribute food, medicine or visit the elderly. I would add that they continue in parallel to deliver six days out of seven 6 billion letters. La Poste is also a key player in parcel delivery and urban logistics, which accounts for nearly 50% of its revenue today. Finally, we consolidated its financial services activity by bringing CNP to La Banque Postale.
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We need private investors to carry out the transformation of our economy
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What is your roadmap for Bpifrance, co-owned with the State?
Bpifrance’s strength is its agility in supporting start-ups, the digitization of companies and, in major mode for the years to come, in contributing to the greening and reindustrialisation of our economy. And in my eyes its managing director, Nicolas Dufourcq, remains the man for the job.
More and more investors are turning away from so-called responsible investments since the Orpea or Teleperformance cases. Is it inevitable?
With the public authorities, we absolutely must find a solution because we need private investors to carry out the transformation of our economy.
You denounce the current disordered capitalism, which penalizes employees in particular. What do you recommend?
I am for the market economy but I think, like Thomas Piketty, that the excessively high rates of return demanded by investors promote the capture of wealth by a minority. We need to drive down their yields to change the system and initiate ecological transformation. It will be more costly for people, so we have to move the sliders across Europe. At 15% return on investment, where is the risk taking and the redistribution? We must act so that the interests of capital owners and employees converge.
