Control… Did you say control? (or supervision?) How to grasp the historical metamorphoses and varieties of banking supervision and control?[Contrôle, vous avez dit contrôle ? Comment saisir les métamorphoses et les variétés historiques du contrôle et de la supervision bancaires ?]

Focusing on the French case, this paper, which is the result of several years of research in the French historical archives of banking supervision and internal control, starts from the observation that French historiography is lagging, and is a call to develop research in two directions: the 19th century, and internal control. It is as difficult as necessary to define and circumscribe "banking supervision", which must be distinguished from "regulation" and which does not exactly designate the same reality as "supervision" (prudential) - an Anglo-Saxon concept that progressed after 1974. Furthermore, a distinction must be made between banking supervision (the supervision of banks) and internal control(s) (within banks). The metamorphoses and historical varieties of banking control are intriguing to grasp. Control systems articulate three levels of coordination (internal and external controls, document-based controls and on-site inspections, and control of control), and combine a priori and a posteriori controls. The variety of combinations reflects their adaptation to the specificities of networks, banking systems, and financial centres, which often lag behind financial and technological innovations. Finally, a methodological framework is proposed to analyse the metamorphoses of banking supervision, through five questions: its (structural and conjunctural) factors and (actual) purposes (stability and security or credibility?); the institutions of supervision (what degree of formalisation? unicity or plurality of authorities? to whom supervisory authority is attributed?); the concrete practices of supervision; the actors and stakeholders of supervision; effectiveness and efficiency. One has to multiply comparisons, study circulations and transfers, and combine the actors' views, to systematically articulate internal and external control – and monetary policies.