Banking on détente: Barclays, Paribas, and Société Générale in Poland, 1950s-1980s

Abstract

This article examines how the cold war influenced the conduct of banking business in Eastern Europe, by focusing on the case of Barclays', Paribas' and Société Générale's involvement in Poland from the 1950s to the 1980s. Based on archival evidence, this article illustrates the multiple facets of banking in a period of all-level confrontation between two systems: search of new business opportunities; facilitation of East-West trade; contribution to foreign policy goals; ill-preparation to new country risks. The article argues that these banks increasingly relied on Western European governments' desire to pursue a process of relaxation of cold war tensions towards the Eastern European countries, known as détente, taking place since the late 1960s.