crédit mobilier

from The Century Dictionary.

• In French history, a banking corporation formed in 1852, under the name of the “Société générale du Crédit Mobilier,” with a capital of 60,000,000 francs, for the placing of loans, handling the stocks of all other companies, and the transaction of a general banking business.
• In United States history, a similar corporation chartered in Pennsylvania in 1863 with a capital of $2,500,000.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• A joint stock company, formed for general banking business, or for the construction of public works, by means of loans on personal estate, after the manner of the crédit foncier on real estate. In practice, however, this distinction has not been strictly observed.