The buoyancy of Transaction Banking

In the middle of March, the bank announced the extension of its SWIFT gpi coverage to nine new countries in Western Europe and Asia, paving the way for corporate clients to track and manage cross-border payments with a greater efficiency. gpi is a tracker based SWIFT system enabling banks – and our SWIFT-connected corporates- to monitor their end to end payments and to have full transparency on the fees collected by each member of the chain. Thanks to this new service, 80% of the SWIFT cross-border payments ($300bn a day) are now processed within less than 30 minutes. The bank has been at the forefront of these latest developments in correspondent banking & cash management as acknowledged by SWIFT: “Societe Generale is transforming the cross-border payments experience for its customers.”

Innovation sits firmly at the core of the bank’s transaction banking activities and is positioned at the forefront of our business priorities. Our teams innovate for and with our clients to enhance transparency, to reach greater efficiency and offer highly secured solutions. SWIFT GPI is just one example among many other innovative market initiatives we proactively take part in.

The advances in which Societe Generale has been intrinsically involved include:

· we.trade, the first live platform for securing and financing international trade based on blockchain technology. Societe Generale is one of the founders of this solution, which is now offered by 13 European banks; and

· the Interbank Information Network initiative, which was initially launched by JP Morgan and takes advantage of blockchain technology to improve the efficiency of cross-border payments by ensuring a leaner communication between banks on compliance related topics.

At Societe Generale, Transaction Banking has been identified as a growth driver for the Group, and carefully positioned at the core of the client relationship. Clear strategic ambitions have been struck, which include:

· maintaining our leading position in France, our domestic market;

· becoming a tier one player in Western Europe by 2022.

We are on track to achieve these goals thanks to the investments we have made in IT, but also to our innovation and our people, which are the key to our success.

Our teams of experts are essential as well as the quality of the cooperation of all sale forces across the whole Group. Excellence in relationships, commitment and team spirit are not empty words at Societe Generale. The energy we invest in serving our clients and offering them dedicated solutions is tangible! Driven by the customer experience and the efficiencies we have created, there is no doubt that Societe Generale will take up challenges on behalf of our clients and make a positive contribution to building the world of tomorrow.

Read the full post on LinkedIn.