After World War II (1939–1945) a law passed on 2 December 1945 redefined the regulatory framework governing the banking industry and decreed the nationalization of the Banque de France and the four leading French retail banks: Banque nationale pour le commerce et l'industrie (BNCI), CNEP, Crédit Lyonnais and Société Générale. In the 1950s CNEP, which traditionally had served medium-large companies in each large market, started trying to move up the value chain with its key customers. The bank's executives established closer relationships with the major enterprises through a policy of frequent contacts with their counterparts in these firms during which they discussed their banking and financing needs. CNEP maintained the main lines of its strategy defined in the inter-war period: selective establishment of its headquarters, centralization of administrative and accounting operations. On the eve of its merger with the Banque nationale pour le commerce et l'industrie (BNCI) in 1966, the Comptoir had 733 branches in the provinces and more than 100 in Paris and Ile de France, almost twice as many as in 1941. Outside France, it remains established in England, the United States, Belgium, India and Australia. In 1966, by decision of Finance Minister Michel Debré, the Comptoir national d'escompte de Paris merged with the Banque nationale pour le commerce et l'industrie (BNCI) to create the Banque nationale de Paris (BNP). Henry Bizot, president of the CNEP, has been appointed president of the new establishment, and Pierre Ledoux, CEO of BNCI, becomes CEO of BNP. In 1852 the Comptoir moved from its temporary office to new headquarters in the hôtel Rougemont at 14, rue Bergère, at first rented. Ten years later the CEP purchased the building, and gradually acquired the surrounding land and buildings. The building, , is an outstanding example of bank architecture. It was built for the Comptoir national d’escompte de Paris (CNEP), and remained the CNEP headquarters from 1852 to 1966, when CNEP and Banque nationale pour le commerce et l’industrie (BNCI) merged to form Banque nationale de Paris (BNP). The bank chose the architect Edouard-Jules Corroyer to design the building. Corroyer had worked under Viollet-Le-Duc and had earlier led the restoration of the spectacular abbey of Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy.