Societe Generale, France's second-biggest listed lender, on April 02 announced fresh management changes at its corporate and investment bank and the merger of several divisions to help save costs in a tough environment.
The bank is in the midst of a plan under Chief Executive Frederic Oudea to slash jobs and shrink its balance sheet at a time of upheaval across the industry, as investment banks race to get in shape for tougher capital requirements designed to crack down on risk.
Joining the investment bank's executive committee are several bankers such as Richard Paolantonacci, who heads a new unit managing balance-sheet resources, as well as Finance Director Vincent Mortier and the head of Lyxor Asset Management.
SocGen also said it was regrouping equity capital markets issuance, M&A advisory and dedicated client services under two business lines, Corporate Finance and Financial Institutions. The bank is scenting advisory opportunities at a time when the bruised financial sector is preserving capital and lending less.
SocGen is also looking to focus more on energy and natural resources, where it sees itself as competitive thanks to its commodity derivatives team and its exposure to Russia. It is creating three business lines - natural resources, financing and capital markets - within its Global Finance unit.
The announcement comes after Switzerland's Credit Suisse recently reshuffled its investment bank's management, installing Jim Amine as sole global head of the unit.
Sources have also told Reuters Germany's Deutsche Bank is to give investment banking and emerging markets more prominence via management changes.
SocGen's Oudea told a Morgan Stanley conference in London last week that the bank was making progress on cutting the kind of assets viewed as riskier by bank regulators. It aims to cut the liquidity needs of its investment bank by 50 billion to 60 billion euros ($66.58 to $79.90 billion).
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