Société Générale

Is Société Générale safe?

Yes, for ordinary deposits. Société Générale, France's third-largest listed bank, held a CET1 ratioCET1 ratioA bank's highest-quality capital (mainly shares and retained profits) as a share of its risk-weighted assets. Higher means more room to absorb losses.More in the glossary of 13.2% at 30 June 2026, against a requirement of 10.26%, and its liquidity coverage ratioLiquidity coverage ratioA bank's cash and easy-to-sell assets compared with the money that could flow out in a 30-day crisis. It must be at least 100%.More in the glossary averaged 147% in the second quarter. French savers have two layers of state-backed protection. We score it 74/100, a little below BNP Paribas at 77. The gap comes from a weaker crisis history and a heavier conduct file, not from today's balance sheet.

What protection do French customers have?

The Fonds de Garantie des Dépôts et de Résolution (FGDR) covers current accounts, ordinary savings books and term deposits up to €100,000 per customer per bank, and must pay within seven working days. Livret A, LDDS and LEP balances carry a separate €100,000 state guarantee per customer per bank. Money received in the three months before a failure from a house sale, an inheritance or a severance payment gets extra temporary cover of up to €500,000 per event.

Since January 2023 the former Crédit du Nord banks have been merged into Société Générale SA under the "SG" brand. If you had accounts at both, they now count toward one limit. BoursoBank, the group's online bank, is a separate licensed bank, and so are Société Générale's foreign retail banks such as Komerční banka in the Czech Republic and BRD in Romania, which fall under their own national schemes.

Capital, ratings and liquidity

Measure	30 June 2026	Requirement
CET1 ratioCET1 ratioA bank's highest-quality capital (mainly shares and retained profits) as a share of its risk-weighted assets. Higher means more room to absorb losses.More in the glossary	13.2%	10.26%
Leverage ratioLeverage ratioA bank's Tier 1 capital divided by its total exposures, without adjusting for risk. It is a simple backstop to risk-based capital rules.More in the glossary	4.3%	3.60%
Liquidity coverage ratioLiquidity coverage ratioA bank's cash and easy-to-sell assets compared with the money that could flow out in a 30-day crisis. It must be at least 100%.More in the glossary	147% (Q2 average)	100%
Net stable funding ratioNet stable funding ratioA bank's stable funding, such as capital and retail deposits, compared with the stable funding its assets need over one year. It must be at least 100%.More in the glossary	115%	100%
Liquid asset buffer	€339 billion

The CET1 figure already deducts a €1.5 billion extraordinary share buyback, and the bank says it will keep the ratio close to 13%. That gives a buffer of about 290 basis points before payout restrictions would apply. Ratings are a notch or so below BNP's: Moody's rates its senior debt A1 with a negative outlook, S&P rates it A and moved its outlook to positive in June 2026, and Fitch raised it to A+. Customer loans were about 76% of deposits, so the bank does not lean heavily on market funding.

A difficult history since 2008

Société Générale's record through the financial crisis is weaker than its numbers today. In January 2008 it disclosed a €4.9 billion loss from unauthorised trades by one trader and raised new capital from shareholders within weeks. Later in 2008 and in 2009 it took €3.4 billion of capital from the French state, under a scheme offered to all large French banks, and paid it back in 2009. It also received about $12 billion as a trading counterparty of AIG after the US rescue of the insurer.

In the euro crisis of 2011 its shares fell sharply on worries about its exposure to southern Europe, though it needed no further support. It had a net loss in 2020, the Covid year, and in 2022 it took a large charge on selling its Russian bank, Rosbank, while staying profitable for the year.

Fines and enforcement

The largest cases date from 2018:

• June 2018: it agreed to pay about $1.3 billion to US authorities over bribes paid to Libyan officials and Libor manipulation.
• November 2018: it paid $1.34 billion in total to US federal and New York authorities over breaches of US sanctions, mostly relating to Cuba. The Federal Reserve's share was an $81.3 million fine.
• May 2026: the ACPR fined it €20 million and issued a reprimand because customers opening its Sobrio account had been enrolled in an insurance policy without being told first. It was the French supervisor's largest fine since 2018. The bank disputes the reading of the law.

The 2026 case matters more to an everyday customer than the US ones: it is about how the bank sells products to retail clients. It does not affect the safety of deposits.

How to keep your money safe at SG

1. Add up everything you hold at Société Générale SA, including old Crédit du Nord accounts. Keep ordinary deposits within €100,000 and regulated savings within their own €100,000.
2. If you need more, a second unrelated bank doubles your cover. BoursoBank has its own limit, but it is part of the same group.
3. Check your account bundle for insurance you did not choose, such as add-ons in Sobrio or similar packages, and cancel what you do not need.
4. Approve payments only in the app with Pass Sécurité. Never approve one because a caller claiming to be from the bank's fraud team asks you to.

How we scored it

Deposit protectionDeposit insuranceA government-backed scheme that repays bank customers up to a set limit if their bank fails, such as the FDIC in the US or the FSCS in the UK.More in the glossary (87) and liquidity (85) are the strongest factors, and capital (77) is sound. Conduct (50) is the weakest, followed by stability history (64) for the 2008 trading loss and state capital. For a comparison with other French and German banks, see BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole and Deutsche Bank.