French bank SocGen to cut about 900 jobs at Paris head office

Societe Generale (SOGN.PA) plans to cut about 900 jobs at its Paris headquarters through voluntary departures, France’s third-biggest listed bank said on Monday, adding to a wave of job losses in the global financial industry.

The planned cuts, which will be submitted to SocGen’s trade unions, represent less than 2 per cent of the bank’s total workforce and about 5 per cent of staff at its headquarters.

“The objective is to group and pool certain activities and functions, remove hierarchical layers to streamline decision-making, and resize certain teams due to reviews of projects or processes,” SocGen’s statement said.

The job losses come as SocGen CEO Slawomir Krupa seeks about 1.7 billion euros ($1.8 billion) in gross savings by 2026, chiming with similar moves at other global banks.

Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) this month said it would cut 3,500 jobs while US bank Citi (C.N) in January said it would axe 20,000 jobs in the next two years.

SocGen employs about 52,000 people in France and 112,000 globally, according to its 2023 half-year financial report.

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