Site institutionnel du Groupe Société Générale
Home  / Société Générale GroupOur businesses / Retail Banking & Specialized Financial Services
Société Générale Group serves 27 million customers in France and worldwide. In France, the bank operates two complementary distribution networks, namely Société Générale and Crédit du Nord. Outside, its retail banking arm is present in 37 countries and overseas. The Specialized Financial Services activities have seen substantial development over the last five years, and have rapidly become a major European player. At end 2007, these activities covered 47 countries worldwide.

At 31st December 2007, the Group’s Retail Banking Outside France division was present in 37 locations, with a total of 2,795 branches and some 39,000 staff serving 8.8 million individual customers and over 700,000 companies.
 
A growth engine
Since 1998, when the Retail Banking Outside France division was created, the Société Générale group has been pursuing a targeted investment strategy based on the principle of diffusing its Retail Banking in France development model abroad whilst respecting local market specificities.
 
Combining internal and external growth, retail banking networks abroad rely on a universal banking concept whose aim is to develop all products and services for a large client base consisting of both businesses and individuals.
 
Strong positions
Our retail banking networks abroad hold significant positions in Central and Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean basin, Africa and French overseas territories. In 2007, Société Générale continued to invest in organic growth, notably in Romania, Serbia, the Czech Republic, Russia, Morocco and Algeria. Our retail banking networks abroad thus opened 380 new branches and added a further 3,150 staff at constant scope. At the same time, the Société Générale group also carried out further targeted acquisitions, in 2007, in Albania, Moldavia, Macedonia (FYROM) and Russia (Rosbank, with a 50% stake + 1 share) that have enabled the Group to further add to its positions in Central and Eastern Europe and to become a major player across the European zone.
 
Since February, Société Générale has become the majority shareholder in Rosbank, one of Russia’s largest retail banking networks. Almost 16,000 new employees have thus joined the Group.