PARIS, FRANCE: Societe Generale is planning to reorganise its French head office to make its operations more efficient and simple. The bank is seeking feedback from its staff representatives on this project, which would help it achieve more savings.

The reorganisation, which is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2024, would lead to about 900 fewer jobs at head office, but no one would be forced to leave. Societe Generale would offer various support options to its employees, such as internal transfers, end-of-year assistance or voluntary exits.

The bank aims to improve its cost/income ratio significantly and gradually, and save about €1.7 billion in gross terms by 2026 compared to 2022. This includes the benefits from ongoing initiatives, such as setting up a new retail bank in France, digitising operations at Komerczni Banka or merging LeasePlan with Ayvens.

It also includes more savings of around €700 million from new projects across the Group to improve information systems, purchasing processes, and organisation. To achieve this, some French head office units are thinking of changing their organisation and providing specific social support measures. The goal is to combine and share some activities and functions, reduce management levels to speed up decision-making, and adjust some teams based on project or process reviews.

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