CAISSE DE REFINANCEMENT DE L'HABITAT (CRH), a credit institution, plays a special role in the financing of housing in France. The CRH was set up in 1985 as part of the general reform of mortgage markets decided by the French government and so received the special agreement of the Act dated July 11,1985 (article 13). It's sole object is to refinance housing purchasers loans, granted by the credit institutions which are its shareholders.


It's sole object is to refinance housing purchasers loans, granted by the credit institutions which are its shareholders, by issuing bonds governed by French law (article 13 de la loi du 11 juillet 1985) for this purpose.

Refinanced loans are all first mortgages loans or residential guaranteed loans provided these meet strict standards of security. All the loans comply with the criteria defined by the law and more those defined by CRH.  CRH fund only housing loans. Therefore, securitization funds and Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS) are excluded.

With an amount of loans granted exceeding EUR 50 billion since its establishment, thus it took over from the traditional French mortgage market.

Its loans are matched by bond issues and secured by a pledged loans portfolio equal to 125 % of the amount borrowed as regulated by the law of December 31, 1969 modified by the law : Code monétaire et financier (articles L. 313-42 to L. 313-49). As a result, CRH acquires ownership of the loan portfolio in the event of a borrowers' default, without further formality and notwithstanding any provisions to the contrary.

Apart from the special supervisory duties of the Commission Bancaire, defined by the law, CRH's audit department makes regular inspections at borrowings banks, with sample tests to confirm the soundness and proper form of the pledged loans.

Each borrowing bank must contribute to CRH's equity capital in portion to its outstanding borrowings. Shareholders' equity amounted to EUR 314 million at june 30, 2008, mainly held by following groups:


Crédit Agricole SA - Crédit Lyonnais
 41.2%
Crédit Mutuel 
 33.9%
Société Générale
 11.7%
BNP Paribas
 8.0%
Banque Fédérale des Banques Populaires
 3.9%

- CRH's bonds are some of the largest non-government issues on the Euro market, which results in very high liquidity.

- They are accepted as Tier One collateral for the European Central Bank's open market operations.

- CRH's ratings : AAA Fitch Ratings IBCA and Aaa Moody's.

- They offer to their holders a privilege on the promissory notes representative of the loans of the CRH to the refinanced credit institutions.

- They are accepted as article 22-4 UCITS directive bonds.

- The are assigned a 10% weighting in the calculation of the capital adequacy ratio of those credit institutions holding them.

- They are accepted as collateral for Bank of France advances and they are accepted in France for investment of surplus resulting from special homebuyers' savings schemes (fonds libres d'épargne logement).