The past year has seen Societe Generale reap the benefits of its long-term investment initiative in its transaction services business across Europe.
The strategy was launched in 2018, when the firm had a strong position in France but had not invested elsewhere in the region. It set itself the objective of investing in cash management, trade finance, factoring and supply chain financing and moved the business from retail banking to global banking and investment solutions.
The results are clear. In 2022, the cash management business was up by 82% versus 2021, trade finance by 17%, receivables and supply chain finance by 19% and cash clearing by 36%. Overall European business grew by 45%.
“We have seen a dramatic improvement in our competitive position over the last five years,” says Alexandre Maymat, previously head of global transaction and payment services at the bank and now head of group inspection and audit. “We have tripled the volume of payment flows that we manage.”