Société Générale S.A. (), colloquially known in English-speaking countries as SocGen (), is a French multinational
universal bank
A universal bank is a type of bank which participates in many kinds of banking activities and is both a commercial bank and an investment bank as well as providing other financial services such as insurance. These are also called full-service ...
and
financial services
Financial services are service (economics), economic services tied to finance provided by financial institutions. Financial services encompass a broad range of tertiary sector of the economy, service sector activities, especially as concerns finan ...
company founded in 1864. It is registered in downtown
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
and headquartered nearby in
La Défense
La Défense () is a major business district in France's Paris metropolitan area, west of the city limits. It is located in Île-de-France region's Departments of France, department of Hauts-de-Seine in the Communes of France, communes of Courbe ...
.
Société Générale is France's third largest bank by total assets after BNP Paribas and Crédit Agricole. It is also the sixth largest bank in Europe and the world's eighteenth. It is considered to be a systemically important bank by the
Financial Stability Board
The Financial Stability Board (FSB) is an international body that monitors and makes recommendations about the global financial system. It was established in the 2009 G20 Pittsburgh Summit as a successor to the Financial Stability Forum (FSF) ...
. It has been designated as a Significant Institution since the entry into force of
European Banking Supervision
European Banking Supervision, also known as the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), is the policy framework for the prudential supervision of banks in the euro area. It is centered on the European Central Bank (ECB), whose supervisory arm is re ...
in late 2014, and as a consequence is directly supervised by the
European Central Bank
The European Central Bank (ECB) is the central component of the Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as well as one of seven institutions of the European Union. It is one of the world's Big Four (banking)#International ...
industrialist
A business magnate, also known as an industrialist or tycoon, is a person who is a powerful entrepreneur and investor who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or ser ...
s and financiers during the Second Empire on 4 May 1864. Its full name was ''Société Générale pour favoriser le développement du commerce et de l'industrie en France'' ("General Company to Support the Development of Commerce and Industry in France"). The bank's first chairman was the prominent industrialist Eugène Schneider, followed by Edward Charles Blount. By 1870, the bank had 47 branches throughout France, including 15 in Paris. It set up a permanent office in London in 1871.
At the beginning, the bank used its own resources almost entirely for both financial and banking operations. In 1871, Société Générale moved into the public French issues market with a national debenture loan launched to cover the war indemnity stipulated in the Treaty of Frankfurt.
The bank was financially involved with some of the businesses created by Paulin Talabot, the railway and canal engineer. Talabot came to have an influential role in the bank.
In 1886, Société Générale was part of the bank consortium (along with the Franco-Egyptian Bank and the Crédit Industriel et Commercial) that financed the construction of the
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower ( ; ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower from 1887 to 1889.
Locally nicknamed "''La dame de fe ...
.
From 1871 to 1893, France went through a period of economic gloom marked by the failure of several banking establishments. The company continued to grow at a more moderate pace. In 1889, there were 148 banking outlets, demonstrating the group's capacity to withstand unfavourable economic conditions.
Starting in 1894, the bank set up the structures characterising a large, modern credit institution. As well as collecting company and private deposits, its branches started to provide short-term operating credits for industrialists and traders. It also moved into placing shares with the general public, issuing private debenture loans in France and also in Russia. Acquisition of equity stakes became a more secondary activity. The company's excellent financial health allowed it to expand its shareholding structure. In 1895, Société Générale had 14,000 shareholders.
In 1898, Société Générale entered the Belgian market. Because the Société Générale de Belgique predated its French namesake and had a dominant position in the national market, Société Générale agreed to create a bank with a different name, the headquartered in Paris but entirely dedicated to operations in Belgium. The bank had its Brussels office from 1898 in the prestigious on Rue Royale, and also maintained a branch in
Antwerp
Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...
By 1913, Société Générale had 122,000 shareholders. The war years were difficult and had serious consequences with the loss of Russian business. However, during the 1920s Société Générale became France's leading bank: its network had grown sharply since the 1890s, with a huge number of branches and seasonal offices allowing in-depth penetration of the provincial market (260 seasonal offices in 1910 and 864 in 1930).
The number of sales outlets rose from 1,005 in 1913 to 1,457 in 1933 (including those operated by ).
Thanks also to the dynamism of supervisory and management staff at head office and in the branch offices it moved ahead of Crédit Lyonnais (in terms of deposits collected and loans distributed) between 1921 and 1928. To satisfy the requirements of investing companies, Société Générale created a subsidiary, Calif, specialised in medium-term credit in 1928.
On an international level, the bank held an active participation in the Russo-Asian Bank, one of the leading bank of the Russian empire. Société Générale first settled in Russia through the ''Severnyi bank'' in 1901, before merging with the Russo-Asian bank in 1910, which held a majority stake in the Chinese Eastern Railway. It also invested in Russian industry including such companies as the Rutchenko Coal Company and the Makeevka Steel Company. Thanks to the connections of Talabot they were also involved in the Krivoi-Rog Iron Company.
The 1930s were another difficult period. Given the decline in international and French business, the bank was forced to nationalise its network by closing down local branches. On the eve of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, the number of sales outlets was not much greater than in 1922. However, Société Générale was active in placing numerous public loans launched during this period by the State or the colonies. The war and the German Occupation interrupted its advance, but the bank moved into Africa and the United States.
Société Générale was nationalised in 1945. It now had a single shareholder: the State. The period from 1945 to 1958 was characterised in France by rapid economic recovery but also a greater disequilibrium in the balance of payments, calling for continued exchange controls and virtually permanent credit control measures. It was not until 1959 that the economy really recovered, but credit controls were reinforced due to persistent inflationary pressures. Sharp growth in production and foreign trade opened up new areas of business for the banks.
The industry underwent some quite radical changes, one of the most striking of which was much greater specialisation of credit. The range of banking services on offer expanded uninterruptedly.
Thanks to its presence in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, Société Générale was able to take advantage of the flow of business generated by the
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred $13.3 billion (equivalent to $ in ) in economic recovery pr ...
.
Société Générale continued to expand in France and beyond. It moved into Italy and Mexico and altered the status of its establishments in Africa after decolonisation, in accordance with the laws passed by these newly independent countries.
From the mid-1960s, Société Générale gave new impetus to its French network, with an acceleration in growth after 1966 following elimination of prior authorisation for opening branch offices. International expansion was just as vigorous. It was no longer limited, as before, to the main financial centres (London, New York), neighbouring countries (Belgium, Spain) and the former colonies, with the primary aim of facilitating the business of French firms, but was also aimed at guaranteeing the bank's presence where new markets were developing, either to export the technical expertise it had acquired in certain fields, or to keep up its contact with the multi-nationals.Rothery, C. (Producer). (2003). Mastermindselevision series "The Riviera Job." Season 1 Episode 15. Canada. . Retrieved 18 June 2011.
1966 and 1967 represented a fundamental turning point in banking regulations, the main development being attenuation of the distinction between deposit and investment banking, and creation of the home mortgage market. Société Générale took advantage of this and acquired leading positions in some new financing techniques designed primarily for companies, such as finance leasing, setting up specialised credit subsidiaries for this purpose.
The 1970s were characterised by two major developments: expansion of the international network and across-the-board introduction of IT facilities to cope with extension of the customer base and the development of deposit money. In 1971, the appearance of automatic cash machines crowned the success and development of the credit card. In 1973, Société Générale opened its representative office in the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
.
In 1975, Société Générale introduced Agrifan, a food-products trading company to connect French suppliers with foreign food buyers. The following year during the
Bastille Day
Bastille Day is the common name given in English-speaking countries to the national day of France, which is celebrated on 14 July each year. It is referred to, both legally and commonly, as () in French, though ''la fête nationale'' is also u ...
holiday, a meticulously planned robbery was carried out against Société Générale's most heavily fortified vault in France by ex-paratrooper and wedding photographer Albert Spaggiari. The robbery which involved secretly tunneling underground and compromising the walls of the bank vault netted Spaggiari over 12 million in cash, jewellery, and bullion.
From the beginning of the 1980s, against a backdrop of deregulation and technological change, internationalisation of the markets and the emergence of new financial instruments, Société Générale set itself two commercial objectives. It focused increasingly on private customers via its network of branches and by acquiring specialised subsidiaries. It pursued and expanded its activities in the capital markets in France, and then, on a selective basis, in the different international financial centres.
On 29 July 1987 Société Générale was privatised. It had been chosen from among the three leading French commercial banks nationalised in 1945 for its excellent risk-coverage, equity and productivity ratios. George Soros was a share-holder in 1988.
In 1986, Société Générale created Fimat International Banque S.A., a global brokerage, offering a range of clearing and execution services on listed or OTC derivatives and cash products. In 2005, Fimat completed the acquisition of Cube Financial. In January 2008, it merged with Calyon Financial to form Newedge; in 2014, SG purchased Credit Agricole's stake.
In subsequent years, the Société Générale Group has focused on developing its activities around three core businesses through a combination of organic growth and acquisitions.
In the early 1990s, the Senegalese subsidiary of Société Générale teamed up with the Swiss processed-foods manufacturer
Nestlé
Nestlé S.A. ( ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. It has been the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since 20 ...
to illegally dispossess the real estate assets of the Industrial Company of Dairy Products (SIPL), thus leading the dairy company to bankruptcy.
Retail Banking was strengthened in 1997 through the acquisition of Crédit du Nord, highlighting the Group's determination to capitalise on the restructuring of the French banking system. At the same time, Société Générale looked to secure the long-term loyalty of its customers (launch of "one account number for life" and introduction of Jazz, a package of service offers). In 1999 it entered into a merger agreement with rival bank Paribas, but this was scuppered by a competitor, the Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP).
In 1998 Société Générale paid $540 million in cash to acquire Cowen & Company, a New York investment bank that specialized in the health care, technology and communications industries. Cowen was taken over by the Societe Generale Securities Corporation, the French bank's New York investment bank, and renamed the SG Cowen Securities Corporation. Joseph M. Cohen, Cowen's chief executive became its chairman, and Curtis R. Welling, an investment banker from Societe Generale's New York office became president and chief executive.
In 1998, Société Générale set up Retail Banking outside France as a separate division, underscoring the Group's resolve to make this business one of its strategic development axes. This activity was also strengthened in 1999 through the acquisitions made in Romania (BRD – Groupe Société Générale),
Bulgaria
Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...
Madagascar
Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...
.
21st century
In the early years of the 21st century, Société Générale's external growth strategy has been manifested through acquisitions in
Central Europe
Central Europe is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern Europe, Eastern, Southern Europe, Southern, Western Europe, Western and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in ...
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...
and in
Slovenia
Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...
) in 2001. Investment banking at Societe Generale in Russia was run by Jacques Der Megreditchian until 2000 At that time, Société Générale became officially concerned with
money laundering
Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds i ...
scandal and
underground economy
A black market is a clandestine market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality, or is not compliant with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the set of goods and services whose production and distribut ...
.
In 2001, Société Générale acquired a controlling interest in the TCW Group. The TCW Group, which was founded in 1971, was originally known as Trust Company of the West and is the parent of TCW/Crescent Mezzanine one of the leading
mezzanine capital
Mezzanine capital is a type of financing that sits between senior debt and equity in a company's capital structure. It is typically used to fund growth, acquisitions, or buyouts. Technically, mezzanine capital can be either a debt or equity ins ...
firms in the US. The TCW Group operated as a subsidiary of Société Générale Asset Management until it was sold to
Carlyle Group
The Carlyle Group Inc. is an American multinational company with operations in private equity, alternative asset management and financial services. As of 2023, the company had $426 billion of assets under management.
Carlyle specializes in ...
.
Africa is also a major area of interest for the bank, with the 2002 purchase of Eqdom in
Morocco
Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...
(the market leader in consumer lending) and in
Tunisia
Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...
Ghana
Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...
in 2003 and 50 percent of Geniki Bank in Greece in 2004 were acquired . In terms of specialized financial services, a department created in mid-2001, the purchase of two
Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank AG (, ) is a Germany, German multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange.
...
subsidiaries, ALD Automotive for multi-brand auto leasing and financing and GEFA for corporate sales financing enabled Société Générale to increase its European presence in these sectors. In 2002, it continued to pursue its external growth strategy by purchasing
Hertz
The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or Cycle per second, cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in ter ...
Lease, a European subsidiary specializing in long-term leasing and fleet management for
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational corporation, multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. T ...
vehicles.
With a track record as leader in France for financial savings products (mutual funds, investment funds, company savings plans), the Group has developed its
Asset Management
Asset management is a systematic approach to the governance and realization of all value for which a group or entity is responsible. It may apply both to tangible assets (physical objects such as complex process or manufacturing plants, infrastr ...
and
Private Banking
Private banking is a general description for banking, investment and other financial services provided by banks and financial institutions primarily serving high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) – those with very high income or substantial asset ...
activities: in 1999, its subsidiary, Société Générale Asset Management, pursued the strategy of developing both its mutual fund management business in France and its activities aimed at major institutional investors at an international level. With the launch of Société Générale AM UK in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
and the acquisition of Yamaichi in Japan, Société Générale Asset Management has taken a decisive step in establishing its international presence and is now able to offer its customers truly global fund management capabilities. Société Générale also has a worldwide presence in private banking activities. After pursuing a deliberate policy of acquisitions in 1998, Société Générale Private Banking consolidated and developed its franchise in 1999 against a backdrop of tougher competition.
During the 1st quarter 2004, the third branch of activity of the Société Générale Group, GIMS Global Investment Management and Services was created. In February 2004, Société Générale set up a new division named SG GSSI, Global Securities Services for Investors, which provides investor services on securities and derivatives, attached to the GIMS which regroups SG Asset Management, SG Private Banking and SG Global Securities Services for Investors. GIMS employed 7,600 people.
In 2005, the Société Générale acquired DeltaCredit, the largest mortgage bank in Russia, from The U.S. Russia Investment Fund for $100 million.
The Société Générale developed its Corporate and Investment Banking businesses under the SG CIB brand name, introduced in 1998, which as of 2014 is subsumed by SG SS. Bolstered by a sound client base and a recognised capacity for innovation borne out by the league tables , Société Générale was looking to develop its M&A, advisory and IPO activities through the acquisition of specialised firms ( SG Hambros in the United Kingdom, Barr Devlin in the United States).
Following two years of crisis resulting from the revelation of the Kerviel fraud and then from the eruption of the
2008 financial crisis
The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...
, the bank appeared to have put things behind it in 2010.
In business terms, Société Générale appeared intent on moving on and implementing an in-depth transformation in 2010. On 15 June, the Bank presented its Ambition SG 2015 programme to investors, the aim of this programme being to "deliver growth with lower risk" by 2015, using the lessons learned from the crisis.
In 2010, the company saw an upturn in its financial results. Over the first half, the Group recorded net income of €2.15 billion.
These good figures were presented shortly after the publication of the results of the stress tests of 91 European banks, results that confirmed the financial solidity of the main four French banks, including Societe Generale.
During the summer of 2011, the financial markets, fearing the collapse of the
eurozone
The euro area, commonly called the eurozone (EZ), is a Monetary union, currency union of 20 Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union (EU) that have adopted the euro (Euro sign, €) as their primary currency ...
associated with the European sovereign debt crisis, were severely shaken. European and French bank shares recorded substantial falls. It was within this context that Britain's ''
Mail on Sunday
''The Mail on Sunday'' is a British conservative newspaper, published in a tabloid format. Founded in 1982 by Lord Rothermere, it is the biggest-selling Sunday newspaper in the UK. Its sister paper, the ''Daily Mail'', was first published i ...
'' published, on Sunday 7 August, an article in which it announced Société Générale's imminent bankruptcy. The newspaper quickly published a retraction and its apologies but, despite that, the rumour gathered pace, notably on social networks, resulting in a spectacular fall in Société Générale's share price and in bearish speculation. Société Générale successfully filed a suit in the UK against Associated Newspapers (the ''Mail on Sundays parent company) for "substantial damage to its reputation and prejudice to its trade".
Bearish pressure, influenced by speculation but also by investor suspicion, continued to affect Société Générale's share price through to the end of 2011. Over the year, the share lost 57.22 percent of its value, the third-worst CAC 40 performance of 2011 (after Veolia and Peugeot).
In August 2020, it was reported that Société Générale experienced a €1.26 billion loss during the second fiscal quarter of 2020. It was the bank's weakest quarterly performance since 2008's Kerviel Fraud. As a result of this, Séverin Cabannes, the bank's global banking and investor solutions business head, is set to retire in 2021 and leave his place by the end of this year. Additionally, Philippe Heim, who serves as the head of international retail banking, financial services, and insurance, will also vacate his position as deputy chief executive immediately.
In December 2013, the European Commission fined the bank close to 446 million Euro for its role in the LIBOR scandal regarding interest rate derivatives.
In December 2021, Amundi finalized its acquisition of Lyxor Asset Management from Société Générale. Lyxor was an
investment company
An investment company is a financial institution principally engaged in holding, managing and investing securities. These companies in the United States are regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and must be registered under th ...
based in France, and a wholly owned subsidiary of Société Générale. It offered exchanged-traded
index fund
An index fund (also index tracker) is a mutual fund or exchange-traded fund (ETF) designed to follow certain preset rules so that it can replicate the performance of a specified basket of underlying investments.
The main advantage of index fun ...
s and other ETFs, exchanged-traded notes ( ETN), and several other products to private and corporate investors.
In April 2022, Société Générale became the first major financial group to leave Russian market because of
International sanctions during the Russo-Ukrainian War
International sanctions have been imposed against Russia and Crimea during the Russo-Ukrainian War by a large number of countries, including the United States, Canada, the European Union, and international organisations following the Russia ...
.
In May 2022, Société Générale announced the closing of the sale of Rosbank and the Group's Russian insurance subsidiaries to Interros Capital. This transaction results for Société Générale in a net loss of around 3.2 billion euros and has an impact of about -7 basis points on its capital ratio.
In March 2025, Alexis Kohler, President
Emmanuel Macron
Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France and Co-Prince of Andorra since 2017. He was Ministry of Economy and Finance (France), Minister of Economics, Industr ...
's chief of staff, has been appointed as executive vice president of Societe Generale, effective June 2025. Kohler will oversee M&A, equity capital markets, and acquisition finance activities, and will assist CEO Slawomir Krupa in implementing the bank's transformation programs.
On April 10, 2025, Société Générale named William Connelly as its next Chairman, set to take over in May 2026.
Operations
Société Générale is a universal bank. The Group consists of three main pillars backed by two business lines. Société Générale is often nicknamed ''SocGen'' (pronounced "sock jenn") in the international financial world.
Commercial activity
Société Générale's three pillars, at the heart of the development of its relationship banking model, are:
* Retail Banking in France (Société Générale, Crédit du Nord and Boursorama)
* International Banking and Financial Services (IBFS)
* Corporate and Investment Banking (SG CIB), with investment banking and fixed income, structured financing, debt and forex activities on the one side, and equity and consulting activities on the other.
The development of these three pillars is backed by two other core activities, namely:
* Specialised Financial Services & Insurance
* Private Banking, Global Investment Management & Services
Corporate affairs
Société Générale's head office is in the Tours Société Générale in the business district of
La Défense
La Défense () is a major business district in France's Paris metropolitan area, west of the city limits. It is located in Île-de-France region's Departments of France, department of Hauts-de-Seine in the Communes of France, communes of Courbe ...
in the city of
Nanterre
Nanterre (; ) is the prefecture of the Hauts-de-Seine department in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located some northwest of the centre of Paris. In 2018, the commune had a population of 96,807.
The eastern part of Nanterre, b ...
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
. The head office has 7,000 employees. The former head office remains as the company's
registered office
A registered office is the official address of an incorporated company, association or any other legal entity. Generally it will form part of the public record and is required in most countries where the registered organization or legal entity ...
.
In 2015, Standard Ethics Aei has given a rating to Société Générale in order to include it in its Standard Ethics French Index.
Sponsorship
The Group has a long-term active and generally very discreet support policy. Its sponsorship of rugby is well-known, but its support in other fields such as music, contemporary art, disabled sport (as an official partner of the Fédération Française Handisport, the French Federation for Disabled Sports) and corporate citizenship, professional integration and disadvantaged children, is less known.
Leadership
* Eugène Schneider, chairman 1864–1869
* , chairman 1869–1886
* Edward-Charles Blount, chairman 1886–1901
* , chairman 1902–1915
* , chairman 1922–1932
* Joseph Simon, chairman 1932–1940
* , CEO 1934-1944 and chairman 1941–1944
* Pierre de Moüy, chairman 1944–1958
* Maurice Lorain, CEO 1944-1958 and chairman 1958–1967
* , CEO 1958-1967 and chairman 1967–1972
* Maurice Lauré, CEO 1967-1982 and chairman 1973–1982
* Jacques Mayoux, chairman & CEO 1982–1986
* Marc Viénot, chairman & CEO 1986–1997
* , chairman 1997-2009 and CEO 1997–2008
* Frédéric Oudéa, chairman 2009-2015 and CEO 2008–2023
* Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, chairman since 2015
* Slawomir Krupa, CEO 2023-
Controversies
Senegal
In the early 1990s, the Senegalese subsidiary of Société Générale teamed up with the Swiss processed-foods manufacturer
Nestlé
Nestlé S.A. ( ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. It has been the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since 20 ...
to illegally dispossess the real estate assets of the Industrial Company of Dairy Products (SIPL), thus leading the dairy company to bankruptcy.
January 2008 trading loss and Kerviel trial
On 24 January 2008 the bank announced that a single futures trader at the bank had fraudulently lost the bank €4.9 billion (an equivalent of US$7.2 billion), the largest such loss in history. The company did not name the trader, but other sources identified him as
Jérôme Kerviel
Jérôme Kerviel (; born 1977) is a French rogue trader who was convicted and imprisoned in the 2008 Société Générale trading loss for position of trust, breach of trust, forgery and unauthorized use of the bank's computers, resulting in los ...
, a relatively junior futurestrader who allegedly orchestrated a series of bogus transactions that spiraled out of control amid turbulent markets in 2007 and early 2008.
Partly due to the loss, that same day two
credit rating agencies
A credit rating agency (CRA, also called a ratings service) is a company that assigns credit ratings, which rate a debtor's ability to pay back debt by making timely principal and interest payments and the likelihood of default. An agency may r ...
reduced the bank's long term debt ratings: from AA to AA− by Fitch; and from Aa1/B to Aa2/B− by Moody's (B and B− indicate the bank's financial strength ratings).
Executives said the trader acted alone and that he may not have benefited directly from the fraudulent deals. The bank announced it will be immediately seeking €5.5 billion in financing. On the eve and afternoon of 25 January 2008, Police raided the Paris headquarters of Société Générale and Kerviel's apartment in the western suburb of Neuilly, to seize his computer files. French presidential aide Raymond Soubie stated that Kerviel dealt with $73.3 billion (more than the bank's
market capitalization
Market capitalization, sometimes referred to as market cap, is the total value of a publicly traded company's outstanding common shares owned by stockholders.
Market capitalization is equal to the market price per common share multiplied by ...
of $52.6 billion). Three union officials of Société Générale employees said Kerviel had family problems. On 26 January 2008 the Paris prosecutors' office stated that Jerome Kerviel, 31, in Paris, "is not on the run. He will be questioned at the appropriate time, as soon as the police have analysed documents provided by Société Générale." ''
Spiegel Online
' () is a German news website. It was established in 1994 as ''Spiegel Online'' as a content mirror of the magazine ''Der Spiegel''. In 1995, the site began producing original stories and it introduced ''Spiegel Online International'' for artic ...
'' stated that Kerviel may have lost 2.8 billion dollars on 140,000 contracts earlier negotiated due to DAX falling 600 points.
Société Générale SA says it had a net loss in the fourth quarter of 2007 after the French bank took a €4.9 billion ($7.18 billion) hit closing the unauthorized trading positions of
Jérôme Kerviel
Jérôme Kerviel (; born 1977) is a French rogue trader who was convicted and imprisoned in the 2008 Société Générale trading loss for position of trust, breach of trust, forgery and unauthorized use of the bank's computers, resulting in los ...
.
The trial of Jérôme Kerviel began on 8 June 2010 at the Paris Palais de Justice, and lasted until 25 June. Société Générale filed the civil suit. The former Société Générale trader was represented by Olivier Metzner, and the Bank was represented by Jean Veil, Jean Reinhart and François Martineau.
The trial aroused much media interest, with a record number of requests for accreditation from journalists.
Following more than two weeks of highly technical debate with much focus on Jérôme Kerviel's character, the State Prosecutor called for the former trader to be given a five-year prison sentence, two of them suspended, whilst Kerviel's lawyer called for his client to be acquitted.
The ruling was announced on 5 October 2010 at 11 am. Jérôme Kerviel was found guilty of the three charges filed against him: breach of trust, fraudulent inputting of data into an IT system and forgery and use of forged documents. He was found to be solely responsible for the record loss suffered by Société Générale in early 2008, and was sentenced to five years in prison, with two of those years suspended, and ordered to pay damages of €4.9 billion to the Bank.
Jérôme Kerviel immediately launched an appeal on the basis of an "unreasonable decision", according to his lawyer Olivier Metzner. Kerviel's sentence has therefore been suspended until the appeal, which is due to take place between 4 and 28 June 2012, and he is presumed innocent until that time.
The huge amount of damages Kerviel was ordered to pay gave rise to much emotion amongst the general public and online. The sentencing of one man to pay such a large sum of money was met with incomprehension and anger amongst Internet users. The Bank announced that the sum was "symbolic" and it had no expectation that the sum would be paid by Jérôme Kerviel.
March 2008: Missing consignment of gold by Goldaş
On 21 March 2008 Société Générale filed suit in Istanbul Commercial Court against Goldaş, a Turkish Jewelry firm, claiming the company had not paid for 15 tonnes(15,000 kg) of gold it had received through a consignment agreement. Goldaş stated that the consignment agreement was only for 3,250 kg of gold with a value of US$94 million. In June 2008, the court found Goldaş not guilty.
March 2009: Potential loss of $11 billion averted due to US government bailout of AIG
On 15 March 2009
AIG
American International Group, Inc. (AIG) is an American multinational finance and insurance corporation with operations in more than 80 countries and jurisdictions. As of 2023, AIG employed 25,200 people. The company operates through three core ...
disclosed that, among its counterparties, Société Générale was to date the largest recipient of both credit default swap (CDS) collateral postings ($4.1 bn) and CDS payments ($6.9 bn), payments made possible in part by the 2008 U.S. government bailout of AIG.
Cedel
Clearstream Banking SA is one of two world-leading international central securities depositories, the other one being Euroclear Bank. It is a fully-owned subsidiary of the Clearstream Group, itself part of Deutsche Börse Group.
History
The C ...
, a
whistleblower
Whistleblowing (also whistle-blowing or whistle blowing) is the activity of a person, often an employee, revealing information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe, unethical or ...
of Clearstream have accused Société Générale of having non-published accounts in Clearstream, which was at the centre of a financial scandal in 2009.
Check processing fees
In 2010 the French government's
Autorité de la concurrence
The ; ) is France's national competition regulator. Its predecessor, the Competition Council, was established in the 1950s. The Competition Authority is an , responsible for preventing anti-competitive practices and monitoring the functioning ...
(the department in charge of regulating competition) fined eleven banks, including Société Générale, the sum of 384,900,000 Euros for colluding to charge unjustified fees on check processing, especially for extra fees charged during the transition from paper check transfer to "Exchanges Check-Image" electronic transfer.3rd UPDATE: French Watchdog Fines 11 Banks For Fee Cartel Elena Bertson, Dow Jones News Wires / Wall Street Journal online, retr 2010 9 20Collusion in the banking sector Press Release of Autorité de la concurrence, République Française, 20 September 2010, retrv 2010 9 20
LIBOR
In December 2013, the European Commission fined the bank close to €446 million for its role in the LIBOR scandal regarding interest rate derivatives.
US mortgage-backed securities
In February 2014, Société Générale agreed to pay $122 million to the
Fannie Mae
The Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA), commonly known as Fannie Mae, is a United States government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) and, since 1968, a publicly traded company. Founded in 1938 during the Great Depression as part of the New ...
and the
Freddie Mac
The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC), commonly known as Freddie Mac, is an American publicly traded, government-sponsored enterprise (GSE), headquartered in Tysons, Virginia.Libyan Investment Authority has filed a $1.5 billion lawsuit in London's High Court against Société Générale. The claims against the bank involve derivative transactions that took place from 2007 to 2009, and Société Générale is accused of funneling at least $58 million in bribes to Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi. The French bank denied those allegations
US municipal bond derivatives
In February 2016, Société Générale paid $26.8 million to settle charges in a case of municipal bond derivatives where the French bank is accused of anticompetitive and fraudulent conduct.
Panama Papers
In March 2016, Société Générale was mentioned in the
Panama Papers
The Panama Papers () are 11.5 million leaked documents (or 2.6 terabytes of data) published beginning April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. These document ...
: It was among the 10 banks that asked for the most offshore shell companies for the account of its clients via the Mossack Fonseca firm. Its headquarters were searched by the French tax police on 5 April 2016, as the bank was linked with the creation of 979 offshore companies. In 2012, CEO Frédéric Oudéa said that Société Générale withdrew from all countries belonging to the grey list of tax havens compiled by the
OECD
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; , OCDE) is an international organization, intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and international trade, wor ...
, including Panama. Despite this previous statement, Mr Oudéa defended that those offshore companies were not meant to be used as tax evasion vehicles.
U.S. sanctions
In November 2018, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced a $53,966,916.05 settlement with Société Générale S.A. to settle potential civil liability for apparent violations of U.S. sanctions. The settlement resolves OFAC's investigation into Société Générale S.A.'s processing of transactions to or through the United States or U.S. financial institutions in a manner that removed, omitted, obscured, or otherwise failed to include references to OFAC-sanctioned parties in the information sent to U.S. financial institutions that were involved in the transactions.