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Societe Generale committed to expansion

Societe Generale says its international expansion is going ahead as planned despite nearly US$10 billion in losses due to the subprime crisis and a high-profile rogue trading case.

The bank is still going through the approval process to be incorporated on the mainland, which would allow it to operate as a domestic bank. Societe Generale plans to offer investment banking, retail banking and wealth management services.

'The message we have from them is that everything is on track and basically on May 1 or May 2 we expect to receive the official green light,' said De Doan-Tran, head of Societe Generale Asian investment banking.

Its losses will also not derail its plans in Russia following the acquisition of a majority stake in Rosbank.

In the meantime, the bank is putting together a crack team of directors to sniff out any potential rogue traders.

'We have to make the controllers paranoid and teach them to see any accident, anomaly as a sign of rogue trading,' said Patrick Soulard, deputy chief executive of the bank's investment banking arm.

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