In the UK and France, Societe Generale's private banking business has come out with some eye-catching programmes to expand its footprint in what appears to be an aggressive move.

(Editor's note: As the summer holiday season bites, we thought readers would like to be reminded of some of the big interviews and features that have been published on this news service and its sister publication since the start of another very busy year.)

One of the largest French financial services groups – with a chunky private bank as part of the setup – seems to have had enough of "playing defence" in its European market five years on from the credit crunch. In Europe at any rate, Societe Generale says it is on the forward march.

In the UK and French markets, the Paris-listed banking group, which recently reported full-year and quarterly results, is expanding wealth management operations, it says. (To view stories on the developments, click here for the UK strategy, and here for the French one.)

So what is SocGen up to as it squares up against big rivals such as BNP Paribas in France and an assortment of banks in the UK?

“We are looking to have quite a step change in our size. The cost of running this business has gone up quite a lot. People need to consolidate and get bigger and we are not immune from that,” Eric Barnett, group chief executive of Societe Generale Private Banking Hambros, told WealthBriefing in a recent telephone call.

“We were also trying to put a marker down when, after two years of saying 'steady as she goes', we felt confident of growing more vigorously again. It is a statement of intent,” Barnett said, referring to the bank’s announcement of recent – and intended - relationship manager hires in the UK.

“We have taken on 16 people in the second half of last year and we are looking to do about the same this year,” Barnett said. “There is also a substantial investment in our front-office IT systems; that has been a bit overdue,” he said, explaining that such spending had been delayed while the firm was keeping a lid on costs. “I am really positive. Hambros is well positioned both as an onshore bank and internationally.”

There has been a marketing campaign effort by SocGen to drive forward its private banking activities; this is ongoing and will continue, he said.

This is all very positive at first glance – needless to say, some of it might be a reflection of the fact that, in the years shortly after the 2008 crash, SocGen and its peers have had to clamp down on costs, de-leverage balance sheets and of course, deal with a wave of regulatory activity. Now that economic conditions appear a bit brighter, some spending emerges.

Going to the clients in France

On the other side of the English Channel, a transformation of how the private bank does business is under way, according to Jean-Francois Mazaud, who has worked at SocGen since 1993 and, since 2012, has been head of the private bank. (He took over from Daniel Truchi, who stepped down.) Essentially, he says, the firm is, via its large network across France, taking private banking to clients in the field, rather than expecting clients to visit a relatively small group of big cities.

Societe Generale announced earlier this month that it will extend its private banking offering to all its clients with financial assets of €500,000 ($675,526) or more, a move which appears to buck a trend in which some of its peers are focusing more on the ultra high net worth end of the spectrum. Private banking in France had previously been open to those with at least €1.0 million of financial assets.

The service is structured at a local level around a private banker, the “privileged contact” with clients, who works out with them the best solutions for the organisation of their wealth and investments; a client advisor, who is in charge of the day-to-day banking relationship in the client’s usual branch and a team of experts, composed of wealth planners and investment advisors, it said. The firm’s private bank serves almost 40,000 French households, accounting for around €50 billion of assets under management. The new development stems from activities in 2008 between the private bank and its retail bank in France, which led to opening a shared structure of eight regional private banking centres.

“We have transformed our private bank in France with a brand new relationship model based on proximity and expertise. This has been made possible through the new partnership we are extending with the Societe Generale French retail network,” he told this publication.

Speaking almost in military terms, Mazaud warmed to his theme: “This firepower of 350 front officers [100 wealth planners plus 250 private bankers] will be deployed across the country from 80 cities; before the change, we had private banking officers in eight large cities across France. Thanks to this large private banking reach, we will be providing customers joining the private bank with an enlarged investment product offer as well as dedicated wealth planning and asset allocation advisory services.”

The programme means the bank is recruiting 160 bankers, coming across from the retail network, he said. “We have trained and on-boarded them in the private bank.”

It could take as long as two years, if not longer, for Societe Generale to see the financial benefits of this change in terms of revenue and profit, he said. (There may be more detail about what to expect at an investor presentation scheduled for mid-May.)

As rumours swirl that Societe Generale might sell its Asian private banking business (the firm has resolutely declined to comment on this matter), this appears to be a bank very much in the throes of big changes. As the saying goes, watch this space.