Société Générale, the French bank, said its private banking operation recorded a net income of €37 million ($49.1 million) in the first quarter of this year, a fall from €58 million, or drop of 36.2 per cent, from the same period a year before.

Private banking had assets of €67.9 billion at the end of the quarter, a rise of 1.5 per cent from the end of December last year. It reported net inflows of €600 million, the bank said in a statement. 

SocGen’s chief executive officer Frederic Oudéa, meanwhile, is to take over from Daniel Bouton, who resigned last week, as chairman.

Mr Oudéa will be appointed at a meeting to be held on 24 May. He was the bank's chief financial officer before being named chief executive last May, also replacing Mr Bouton in that role.

In further details on the results today, SocGen said in the investment management and services division, of which private banking is a part, the unit logged net banking income of €652 million, a rise of 8.7 per cent from a year before. At the end of the quarter, SocGen had €332 billion of assets under management, a fall from €391 billion in the same period of 2008.

“Private banking’s client driven activity partly reflected an uncertain environment characterised by clients ‘wait and see’ attitude,” the Paris-listed bank said.

While it is affected by some outflows in some areas, SocGen continues to reorganise its asset management operations; the disposal of its SGAM UK operation was completed at the start of April this year. The merger of its traditional asset management arm with Credit Agricole Asset Management is ongoing, SocGen said.

Asset management reported a net outflow of €2.2 billion in the first quarter, compared with an outflow of €7.3 billion in the same period a year before.

For the group as a whole, it reported a net loss of €278 million compared with a profit of €1.1 billion a year before.

The French bank reported €1.5 billion of mark-downs and a doubling of loan-loss provisions. It had a Tier 1 capital ratio of 8.7 per cent.