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CRÉDIT MUNICIPAL DE PARIS WILL OPEN UNTIL 8PM EVERY THURSDAY, TO COPE WITH RISING NUMBER OF CUSTOMERS THE bank that operates as France’s “official pawnbroker”, has extended its opening hours

for the second time this year. Since February 3, the Crédit Municipal de Paris (CMP) has been open for business until 6pm on weekdays and 5pm on Saturdays. Now, it will stay open every

Thursday until 8pm. The Parisian institution on Rue des Francs Bourgeois, which has been operating for more than 375 years and is known colloquially as “My Aunt”, offers small, low-interest

loans against inexpensive valuables and reported a 15% rise in its pawnbroking activities last year. It deals with 700 customers every day. The extended opening hours are intended to make

CMP services accessible to more members of the public. A Napoleonic law passed in 1804 banned private pawnbrokers in France. The state still holds a monopoly on pawnbroking services through

the CMP, which charges interest rates of between 4% and 9% on money loaned on products brought in. If the loan is not repayed in a year, the goods can be auctioned to recoup the debt - but

only 10% of goods make it to auction. In their time, Victor Hugo and Emile Zola pawned goods at the CMP. News of the extension of CMP’s opening hours comes as a survey of mayors across the

country shows they believe that poverty in their communes is on the rise. The study found that 80% of mayors believe the number of people living in poverty in their communes is rising. The

last poll to ask the same question, in 2008, showed just 51% of mayors were worried about rising poverty. Bernard Thibaud, general secretary of Catholic Relief Services which commissioned

the poll, said: "In the Catholic Relief Services, we know that there is a sharp deterioration in poverty. But what surprised us was the extent of awareness of the mayors.” Single

parents and young unemployed people are more likely to have fallen into financial difficulty, the study said. According to the survey, mayors have “made greater efforts” to help people in

difficulty living in their areas, while 91% of them claim to have taken steps to “strengthen social ties” during their tenure.