Société Générale
The bank was founded by a group of industrialists and financiers during the second empire, on May 4, 1864, to support the development of commerce and industry in France. The bank's first chairman was the prominent industrialist Eugène Schneider (18051875) followed by Edward Blount, a Scotsman.
The company started to hire employees and establish offices. Coverage of France went ahead at a steady rate. By 1870, the bank had 15 branches in Paris and 32 in the rest of France. It set up a permanent office in London in 1871.
At the beginning, the bank used its own resources almost entirely for both financial and banking operations. In 1871, Société Générale moved into the public French issues market with a national debenture loan launched to cover the war indemnity stipulated in the Treaty of Frankfurt.
From 1871 to 1893, France went through a period of economic gloom marked by the failure of several banking establishments. The company continued to grow at a more moderate pace; in 1889, there were 148 banking outlets, demonstrating the group's capacity to withstand unfavourable economic conditions.
Starting in 1894, the bank set up the structures characterising a large, modern credit institution. As well as collecting company and private deposits, its branches started to provide short-term operating credits for industrialists and traders. It also moved into placing shares with the general public, issuing private debenture loans in France and also in Russia. Acquisition of equity stakes became a more secondary activity. The company's excellent financial health allowed it to expand its shareholding structure.
In 1895, Société Générale had 14,000 shareholders; in 1913, they numbered 122,000. The war years were difficult and had serious consequences with the loss of Russian business. However, during the 1920s Société Générale became France's leading bank: its network had grown sharply since the 1890s, with a huge number of branches and seasonal offices allowing in-depth penetration of the provincial market (260 seasonal offices in 1910 and 864 in 1930).
The number of sales outlets rose from 1,005 in 1913 to 1,457 in 1933 (including those operated by Sogenal). Thanks also to the dynamism of supervisory and management staff at head office and in the branch offices it moved ahead of Crédit Lyonnais (in terms of deposits collected and loans distributed) between 1921 and 1928. To satisfy the requirements of investing companies, Société Générale created a subsidiary, Calif, specialised in medium-term credit in 1928.