ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, 23 MAY 2017
WE CAN HOLD
OUR HEADS HIGH WHEN
COMPARING OURSELVES
TO GOOGLE, APPLE,
FACEBOOK AND
AMAZON
LETTER TO SHAREHOLDERS_JUNE 2017 | 7
What is Societe Generale’s
ethical policy in particular with
regard to opening branches
and agencies in tax havens?
We are in full compliance
with all of the rules relating to
money laundering and tax fraud.
In all of the territories where we
have private banking activities,
in particular, we will have
automatic information exchanges.
A large number of countries
have signed up to this 2-wave
project: a first wave in which
countries will transmit information
in 2016 and 2017, and a second
wave in which this information
will, from 2017, be shared
and automatically transmitted
to the tax authorities of the
countries in question in 2018.
Since the end of 2009-2010,
cooperation among countries
has improved considerably
and we have also improved the
way we operate in this area.
How is Societe Generale
planning to stand up to Google,
Apple, Facebook and Amazon
(GAFA) who have suddenly
arrived on the banking
services scene, specifically
payment means?
GAFA are among the new entrants
in the payments area, a highly
competitive area because it can be
used to collect data. Accordingly,
we have to be very vigilant.
Remember that in the area of
payments, security is a vital issue.
In terms of security, we are the
co-promoters, in France, of
the Paylib secure transactions
system. We are also the first
institution worldwide to issue
a crypto dynamic card whose
number changes every hour.
This card provides total
security. So we can hold our
heads high when comparing
ourselves to GAFA.
What is Societe Generale
doing to anticipate possible
disparities in future regulation
between the USA and Europe?
Balance in terms of regulation is a
key issue for our global business
lines in which competition is
international, especially when facing
the US banks which are particularly
powerful. We must take great
care to ensure that we are not at
a disadvantage in this international
competition, especially given that,
on the US side, there appears to
be a desire to relax the rules.
What existing disputes does
the Group still have to settle?
What is the level of risk for
these disputes? What is the
timetable for their resolution?
There are basically three potential
disputes with the regulators:
the accusation of corruption for
investments made by Libyan sovereign
funds, the accusation concerning IBOR
rates fixing and the dollar denominated
transfers to countries on the sanctions
list drawn up by the US authorities.
It is still difficult to measure the precise
level of the risk of these disputes.
We are trying to measure it as closely
as possible and we are setting aside
provisions in this regard. Similarly,
it is very difficult to have a clear view
of the timetable for resolution, which
doesn’t depend on us. We’d like to
put these matters behind us as quickly
as possible so that in 2018, we can
focus 100% on the major structural
transformations that await us.
Watch the video of the General Meeting on
www.societegenerale.com
