Full Year 2021 Societe Generale SA Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Delphine Lee - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : So I have 2 questions. My first one is on your new cost income target range of 66%, 68%. Just wanted to understand a little bit the -- what that means for the absolute cost base. Is the intention to reduce the cost base without the restructuring costs? Or I mean just wanted to get a bit of direction about what you're assuming in this guidance? My second question is on capital. So you're basically saying you're going to be above 200, 250 basis points over MDA, and on the Basel IV. And given your starting point, end of '21, it does sound like your Basel IV guidance has changed? Or just kind of wondering if you could just give us a bit of maybe an updated number for Basel IV and also the different moving parts because you're also having 40 basis points regulatory impact in '22. So if you could just explain a little bit that new guidance as well.

Question: Omar Fall - Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - Analyst : Just trying to see if you could help us with some guidance on the top line in French retail into 2022? Because I guess I'm trying to understand the quarter-on-quarter change in TLTRO contribution, in particular this quarter? Because I thought it would go down a bit, which would imply that NII has jumped quite a lot this quarter despite loans only being up 2%. So if you could maybe clarify some of that. And then secondly, I recall the target with something like $200 million of net profit from Boursorama in a couple of years. Once you cut the presence, the cash-backs and acquisition costs, does that go up in line with the higher client base? Because I guess the idea was that Boursorama was unprofitable because of these high acquisition costs that presumably you need less of those given how far ahead you are on client acquisition. And then sorry, I'll sneak in one. I see that Mr. Krupa was on Bloomberg saying that bonuses in GBIS will rise massively, I believe, were his words. Could you give some color on that statement because as you stated earlier, if I look at markets, revenues were up almost 40% last year, but OpEx is barely higher on an adjusted basis. So -- just some color on that, please. Sorry for the extra question.

Question: Kirishanthan Vijayarajah - HSBC, Research Division - Analyst : A couple of questions. So firstly, in terms of the approval process with the ECB for the buyback, I was just wondering, when we're in the middle of reasonably large acquisitions like LeasePlan, maybe ING France, not so large. Is there an expectation from the ECB that you need to take a bit more of a cautious approach around sort of payouts and buybacks? And when these deals are hopefully out the way at some stage that it's got to be more aggressive when you next sit down with the ECB, perhaps? I"m just wondering how the ECB approaches these kind of payout discussions when banks like SocGen is very much in sort of acquisition growth mode? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 10, 2022 / 10:30AM, SOGN.PA - Full Year 2021 Societe Generale SA Earnings Call And then second question, just quickly on the corporate loan growth in French retailer. I know you said the new production is pretty healthy, but when do you think we're likely to see more sustained growth in the actual stock of loans? I guess there's a lot of short-term stuff that's rolling off at the moment. So just the volume dynamics there, especially with regards to what you're seeing with the business loans in French retail.

Question: Jonathan Matthew Balfour Clark - Mediobanca - Banca di credito finanziario S.p.A., Research Division - Analyst : Can I come back to a couple of cost targets you gave in your slide this time last year and at the retail day? So back then, you had 2023 underlying costs to be below EUR 16.5 billion. Now I know there has been Scope changes since then with Lyxor and with LeasePlan and from what you've just said, there's also a change in the systemic resolution fund contribution. But if we adjust for those 2 items, would you still stick to that kind of 2023 underlying costs to be down versus 2020 on an underlying basis guidance that you gave a year ago. And then similarly, with respect to the EUR 5 billion 2025 cost for the SocGen and Credit du Nord networks combined, do you stick to that target that was given at the time of plan announcement?