Optimisation of processes / Quality and innovation / Governance and Organisation / Home page / RSE Société Générale - Sustainable development at Societe Generale, Corporate an social responsibility (CSR) at SG

Optimisation of processes

Société Générale continually strives to improve the performance of its products and services by making them more transparent and easy to use; to produce high quality data and advice in order to open up the bank to an even broader spectrum of clients; and to nurture individual and proactive relationships with each customer.
All Group processes (e.g. Six Sigma) within all of its business lines are in the process of being optimised.

Retail Banking

Each year, Forrester’s “Customer Advocacy” survey measures the opinion of the customers of European banks. In 2007, 27% of French customers believed their bank “acted in their best interests” (31% in 2006). Société Générale was rated top amongst the French banks with 40% (vs. 30% in 2006) and 5th in Europe (behind four cooperative banks).

Corporate and Investment Banking

See Awards in 2008-2009
Orbeo, the joint-venture between Société Générale and Rhodia which trades in CO2 emission credits won several awards in 2007 and 2008. In June 2008, it was named House of the Year – Emissions Europe" by the magazine, Energy Risk, before going on to win four Energy Risk Rankings Awards in 2009 (best trading company for EUAs, for EUA options, for Primary CERs and for Secondary CERs).

Asset Management

SBI Mutual Fund, SGAM’s joint venture in India, was named Mutual Fund of the year 2007 by CNBC-CRISIL¹. Five of its funds also received awards for quality and investment performance. SBI MF's aim is to become one of the top three fund managers in India by 2008. State Bank of India is the country’s leading bank with a 25% share of the deposits market and 110 million customers. Through cross-selling, SGAM provides foreign investors with easier access to SBI MF’s best performing investment strategies.
SGAM has voluntarily submitted its methodology for rating by independent bodies:

In 2002, it became one of the first fund managers to be approved by the Comité Intersyndical de l’Epargne Salariale ( inter-union employee savings committee ) for its range of employee savings funds (Arcancia Label);
In 2003, Novethic rated the SGAM Invest Europe Développement Durable fund "aa" and did so again on two subsequent occasions;
In 2008, Finansol awarded its label to 3 company savings solidarity funds.

2008: SGAM was awarded the Finansol Label in June.

Finansol website

SG Securities Services

SAS 70 Auditing standard (types I and II) for custody process in France, Luxembourg and Italy.

In 2008 several business lines of SGSS undertook being audited (SAS 70 standard²) to answer rising customer request :

the Custody business line received a type II report during the last Q, 2008 for its Luxembourg teams and a type I, during Q1 2009 for the French teams
the fund administration and asset servicing business line obtained a type II report in the course of Q 4, 2008 for the Luxembourg teams and type 1 for the French teams during Q 1, 2009 for the French teams
As transfer Agent, the business line was awarded type II report, for Q4 2008
SGSS in Italy for its several business lines (custody, depositary, settlement, transfer, fund accounting, corporate functions – accounting, risk, organisation and quality) received type II report during Q 1, 2009

NOTES

Crisil is the leading ratings agency in India and local subsidiary of S&P
Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) No. 70, Service Organizations, is a widely recognized auditing standard developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). A Type I report from a external auditor (Deloitte) describes the service organization's description of controls at a specific point in time. A Type II report not only includes the service organization's description of controls, but also includes detailed testing of the service organization's controls over a given period.