Société Générale unveiled a new strategic plan on 21 September, targeting a return on tangible capital of 13–14% in 2029. The French bank also set an ambition to exceed 15% from 2030. Its programme combines a lower cost base with selective growth, extending the turnaround led by chief executive Slawomir Krupa.
Krupa took charge in 2023 and introduced an initial three-year restructuring plan. Reuters reported that the bank’s shares had nearly tripled since early 2025 as investors responded to its focus on capital and costs. The next phase must demonstrate that improved profitability can be sustained alongside growth.
LOWER COSTS AND TECHNOLOGY INVESTMENT
The bank aims to reduce annual costs to below €16.3 billion by 2029, approximately 2% below its estimated 2026 level. It projects average annual revenue growth of about 3% and a cost-to-income ratio below 55%, with savings expected from procurement, technology simplification and staff departures through natural attrition.
The investor presentation identifies €500–600 million of potential savings from artificial intelligence, with approximately €350 million already incorporated into the 2029 plan. It also describes a collaboration with Anthropic covering Claude models, coding tools and joint development of financial-services applications and control frameworks.
FRENCH RETAIL AND CAPITAL RETURNS
Société Générale separately appointed BoursoBank chief executive Benoit Grisoni to oversee individual and professional clients within its French retail banking, private banking and insurance division from 1 October. He will retain his BoursoBank role. The appointment supports the plan’s more integrated approach to its French retail franchises.
The bank expects ordinary shareholder distributions above €13 billion during 2026–2029, with potential excess-capital returns of about €8 billion taking the total above €21 billion. Those amounts remain conditional, rather than guaranteed payments. Annual second-quarter results will include updates on excess-capital management, providing a stated checkpoint for the distribution plan.