Shaping Today and Tomorrow’s Market Environment

Being recognized as Equity Derivatives House of the year 11 times since 2002, Societe Generale has demonstrated once again in 2017 that it continues to lead the way as the industry goes through a major transitioning phase.

The award recognizes Societe General’s ability to leverage its market leading platform and large group of derivative specialists to turn the themes of 2017 - bullish sentiment resulting in massive inflows into equity structured products, resultant risk transfer innovation, hedging a potential downturn of the equity rally and an overall low volatility environment - into opportunities for its clients.

Societe Generale Index (SGI) - A leading Index Platform for all

SGI is a leading index provider delivering tailored index solutions to suit the needs of its clients. The SGI range of indices targets the growing market demand for absolute and uncorrelated return engines, quantitative strategies, and niches of growth such as alternative energy, water or sustainable investments.

With over 1300 live indices, SGI’s impressive growth saw Assets under Management more than triple in just 5 years (from EUR 10bn to 33bn), which resulted from Societe Generale’s ability to apply index solutions in an off the shelve or bespoke format to an ever-growing range of demands.

Providing institutional investors with easy access to sophisticated investment and hedging strategies in bespoke format, Societe Generale leverages on the widely-acclaimed expertise of the bank’s Quant Research team to offer leading Risk Premia solutions.

Tailoring Index Solutions to suit the needs of Distributors and Investors: Societe Generale has launched a range of pricing efficient indices for the retail and private banking markets. They allow investors to benefit from the enhanced features of structured products (participation, principal protection) compared to products linked to traditional benchmark indices (e.g. CAC 40, SBF 120), while keeping comparable economics. These indices have experienced a tremendous success in Europe, in France and Belgium in particular, with over EUR 4bn raised.

A powerful alternative risk recycling proposition that enabled Societe Generale to pioneer Geometric Dispersion and propose new sources of return

In the current ultra low yield environment, the combination of one of the markets’ largest equity derivatives platforms, global reach and coverage of all client types has enabled Societe Generale to meet distribution clients’ demand and generate new sources of returns for institutional investors by recycling risk from structured products issuance to generate yield enhancement instruments.

Geometric Dispersion on bespoke baskets of stocks – a Societe Generale innovation – transfers the risk resulting from structured products issuance while offering hedge funds and asset managers an enhanced exposure to dispersion at the best price in a year of renewed appetite for this type of trades.

Turning Market impacting events into opportunity

Our unique setup, one of the markets’ largest and strongest groups of derivatives specialists, setup to provides institutional clients with timely actionable trade ideas, allowing clients to pick and choose those right for them in their quest to hedge portfolios and turn their views into investable solutions. Societe Generale has been a leader in proposing trade ideas to its clients during market events such as Brexit, US and recently the French elections.

Embedding Corporate & Social Responsibility (CSR) in our value proposition to clients results in market first

Societe Generale is the first bank to offer positive impact finance notes. Driven from the very top of the bank with commitment from the CEO level, we have setup an integrated Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) platform that provides services across the value chain from capital raising to investment opportunities. Positive Impact Finance Notes, a market first by Societe Generale, serves to deliver a positive contribution to one or more of the three pillars of sustainable development (economic, environmental & social)

Disrupting the Status Quo in search of sustainable, future-proof markets

Recognizing third party expertise and taking a partnership approach to combine the very best of each entity’s expertise has been at the heart of Societe Generale’s drive to shape future investment management.

• The development of partnerships with asset managers, a first of its kind initiative, which bring together market execution, derivatives expertise, risk premia platform, hedging capabilities with asset allocation, best execution, fiduciary duty, and fund wrapper capabilities to boost performance.
• Best-in-class allocation in AI and Robotics has seen Societe Generale partner with Martin Ford, an acknowledged research specialist and best seller author on this very topic to design investment solutions with future oriented underlyings.