Results were stronger for the group across the board, including at its private banking business, with the odd caveat. Client inflows and rising markets helped push AuM higher.

Paris-listed Societe Generale today said that its asset and wealth management business logged net banking income of €232 million ($275.4 million) in the second quarter of 2021, steady on a year ago.

Within that business division, its private banking area logged net income of €171 million in Q2 2021, dropping 8.8 per cent; however, the figure actually rose 8 per cent when the figures took into account a one-off €29 million impact of an insurance payout.

“The business benefited from strong commercial activity combined with net inflow amounting to +€2.1 billion,” the French banking group said in a statement. 
The private bank’s assets under management rose 4.2 per cent in the latest quarter from the end of March, standing at €126 billion, it said. There were net client inflows of €4.5 billion in the first half of 2021, with all regions of Societe Generale’s business delivering a positive result, it said.

Across the whole Societe Generale banking group, it logged underlying net income, on a reported basis, of €1.349 billion in Q2 2021, against a small net figure of €8 million a year ago. Much of the change in fortunes was down to impairment losses on goodwill swinging from a loss of €684 million a year ago to zero in Q2. Net banking income rose to €6.261 billion from €5.296 billion; operating costs rose to €4.107 billion from €3.86 billion, it said. 

“Once again, Societe Generale enjoyed an excellent quarter, with a solid commercial and financial performance by all its businesses. Q2 was marked by the strong revenue momentum, continued cost discipline and a very low cost of risk resulting from very few loan defaults. The results for H1 2021 [first-half 2021] are the best for five years, illustrating the strength of the business model and the group’s capacity to rebound. On these bases, the group is raising its full-year forecasts for 2021,” Frédéric Oudéa, group chief executive, said. 

At 30 June, Societe Generale’s Common Equity Tier 1 ratio stood at 13.4 per cent, or around 430 basis points above the regulatory requirement for this measure of capital strength, it added.