Société Générale, the French banking group which contains a substantial private bank, said yesterday that it expected to report further write-downs stemming from the housing mortgage market in the fourth quarter of 2009.

The Paris-listed bank said it expects to record a negative impact of -€1.4 billion (around $2.4 billion) based on various write-downs linked to mortgage-backed securities, according to a statement.

However, the bank said it expects to report “solid activity levels” at its private banking division, as well as at its domestic French networks.

A capital gain of €600 million will also be booked by the bank stemming from its Amundi asset management joint venture agreed late last year with Crédit Agricole.

Net income at corporate and investment banking is likely to be lower than in the third quarter of last year, the bank said, but gave no explicit figures.

“Thanks to strong customer franchises, with significant growth potential, a robust financial structure and new management team, Société Générale is expected to go into 2010 with confidence,” it said.

The bank had €348 billion of assets under management at the end of September 2009.

As announced recently, SG Private Banking has rebranded itself as Société Générale Private Banking, to emphasise the importance that the banking group gives to this business division.