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. The bank described the roadmap as opening a new phase of disciplined, profitable and value-creating 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 bank expects AI-supported initiatives at group level to generate €500–600 million of savings, including about €350 million already identified by 2029. The bank also signed a strategic agreement with Anthropic; Krupa said it gives the bank access to Anthropic's technology and experts and allows models such as Claude to be co-developed and adjusted for the bank's needs.
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. Under the plan, individual and professional clients of BoursoBank and the SG network will be supervised by the same manager.
The bank expects ordinary shareholder distributions above €13 billion during 2026–2029, with potential excess-capital distributions of up to about €8 billion that could take the total above €21 billion. The bank will communicate on its excess-capital management once a year with its second-quarter results.