The private banking unit of Paris-listed Société Générale remains on the acquisition trail after having rejected a number of buying opportunities recently, Dow Jones reports.

The unit has looked at a lot of dossiers in the last few months, but found that none of the potential deals met the bank’s investment criteria, Daniel Truchi, head of SocGen Private Banking is reported to have said at a press conference.

"We don't regret it," Truchi said, adding that the bank would continue to scrutinise acquisition opportunities.

In other recent developments, this week SocGen Private Banking opened a Middle East department in Geneva, having recruited five private bankers from Lloyds Bank to focus exclusively on Middle Eastern clients.

Christopher Urwick has been appointed manager of the new department, with his colleagues being Claude Tendon, Amr Barakat, Sandra Bavaud and Nathalie Wyss. The new team reports to Eric Lorentz, SocGen’s UAE-based director for Middle Eastern clients, who is responsible for the international coordination of sales to this client segment.

SocGen has also recently been ramping up its coverage of affluent Russian clients and in March created an eight-strong Russian clientele department based in Zurich.