11 I SOCIETE GENERALE 2013-2014 “We have new leeway to allocate our resources to our clients' projects and to developing our operations” Séverin CABANNES Deputy Chief Executive Officer Why create a new "Global Banking and Investor Solutions" core business? All the businesses and teams brought together within this core business work to help our large clients grow, whether they are companies, financial institutions or private clients. The new organisation is centred on our clients. It makes it possible to offer them a broader, more comprehensive and more integrated range of services, which helps to better support them in their projects. Global Banking and Investor Solutions is a driver for the Group's development. Our leading assets are the strength of our clients and the quality of our relationships with them. Our more synergistic approach will encourage the development of high value-added services that are in line with their expectations. What were the major trends within the core business in 2013? The first point of note is that we practically completed our programmes for disposing of assets and reducing our risk profile. We adjusted our business portfolio, decreased our exposure to market risks, substantially developed the proportion of operations that go by the originate- to-distribute model – meaning loans that we originate and arrange without needing to keep them on our balance sheet, while transferring some or all of the risk to investors. In a few years, we have thoroughly revamped the way we do business – including sharing a single risk culture – by optimising our scarce resources such as capital and liquidity. Today, we have new leeway to allocate our resources to our clients' projects and to developing our operations. The performance of our businesses in 2013 shows that we are on a path to growth and that our market share is rising. We have bolstered our position as a world leader in equity derivatives, structured products and natural resources STRATEGY financing, in particular through innovative risk coverage solutions. We have invested for the coming years by preparing to fully integrate Newedge, our brokerage subsidiary. What is your mindset as you look ahead to the near future? Our large clients recognise our level of expertise, our business edge, our ability to innovate and the quality and commitment of our teams. This is a powerful motivating tool to deepen the trust-based relationship we have with them. We have done a lot of work on ourselves and we are now in a position to invest ourselves in every meaning of the word to further their projects. This is how we exercise our responsibility as bankers, by effectively contributing to the financing of the economy and the development of our clients. ■
ACTIVITY_REPORT_20132014_UK
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