On Monday, 5 February 2024, Société Générale, a top-tier European bank, announced plans to cut 900 jobs at its head office in Paris. This is the latest in a recent upsurge of layoffs in the fintech sphere.
Société Générale announces organisational changes at its Paris head office
Forbes reported that January cuts reached an approximate 15-year high as more than 82,000 employees lost their jobs in US-based companies. The media agent attributes these movements to persistent interest rate hikes during 2023.
Société Générale’s planned job cuts make up around 5% of the employees at its headquarters and less than 2% of its total staff complement. In September 2023, the institution tabled strategies to improve its cost vs income ratio and set a 2026 savings target of about €1.7bn. To achieve this target, Société Générale is in the process of realising a new retail outlet in France, digitising functions at Komerčni banka, and integrating LeasePlan into Ayvens.
Don’t miss out the latest news, subscribe to LeapRate’s newsletter
Other measures include savings from new projects and the job cuts at its head office. According to Reuters, this move syncs with those of other banks, such as the 3,500 and 20,000 job cuts at Deutsche Bank and Citi respectively.
In its press statement, Société Générale said:
Several French head office entities are considering organisational changes that require specific social support measures. 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.
The bank stressed that these cuts are voluntary and no one will be forced out of their position. The company’s 2023 half-year financial report showed that it employed 52,000 people in France and 112,000 worldwide.
