Quick read: The quest to turn around SocGen’s CIB

1. Conceding defeat

Société Générale has finally admitted it lacks the scale to compete in fixed income and currencies, and is making stringent cuts to stop further damage to the group’s financial performance. It constitutes an abrupt and arguably belated about-turn. Read more…

2. Boxed into a corner

Disastrous fourth-quarter results, especially in fixed income, merely underline the necessity of Séverin Cabannes’ plan to retreat from FICC. Rising regulatory costs – including remediation over Libor and Libya-related litigation – has made FICC, like prop trading, harder to sustain. Read more…

3. Last redoubt

A retreat to equity derivatives, structured finance and transaction banking will not be enough to keep the profitability of SocGen’s corporate and investment bank from falling further behind BNP Paribas, despite the latter’s recent risk-management hiccups. Read more…

4. The end game

Questions about SocGen’s future are not going away, not least given the difficulty of maintaining its second-tier investment bank. Are SocGen’s leaders the right ones to prove its doubters wrong, or is an eventual merger with another European bank inevitable? Read more…