Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking Awarded Structured Products House of the Year for Latin America

NEW YORK, May 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Structured Products Magazine, in its May issue, named Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking House of the Year, Latin America, "for its speed of execution, pricing, continued dedication to creating innovative products, the seamless access it can offer to fixed-income, equity and other platforms, as well as tailor-made structures and its after-sales."

Structured Products Magazine, an industry publication dedicated to the wholesale market for derivatives-based investment products, stated that among its accomplishments, the bank's "introduction of derivatives based on the Chipeco Index has pride of place in its accomplishments."

Another accomplishment in the region that contributed to the bank winning the award was the introduction of a 100% principal-protected Unidad de Inversion ("UDI") linked to the SGI Smart Market Neutral Commodity Index, the first 100% principal-protected UDI cross-asset note traded in Mexico. Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking continually responded to a low interest rate environment throughout the year by combining hybrid yield-enhancement strategies like adding sovereign credit risk with a simple interest-rate product to produce a more attractive coupon on a credit-linked note.

The bank's Cross-Asset Solutions group provides investors with one integrated multi-asset market solutions team.  With pooled engineering capabilities, a specialized trading team and the alignment of sales coverage, it is able to provide clients with customized solutions across all asset classes (equities, commodities, interest rates, currencies, credit, hidden assets, hedge funds, mutual funds, multi-asset / hybrid) through various wrappers.

This is the 4th year in a row that Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking has been awarded House of the Year, Latin America.

Societe Generale

Societe Generale is one of the largest European financial services groups. Based on a diversified universal banking model, the Group combines financial solidity with a strategy of sustainable growth, and aims to be the reference for relationship banking, recognised on its markets, close to clients, chosen for the quality and commitment of its teams.

Its 157,000 employees* based in 85 countries accompany more than 33 million clients throughout the world on a daily basis. Societe Generale' teams offer advice and services to individual, corporate and institutional customers in three core businesses:

• Retail banking in France with the Societe Generale branch network, Credit du Nord and Boursorama
• International retail banking, with a presence in Central and Eastern Europe and Russia, in the Mediterranean basin, in Sub-Saharan Africa, in Asia and in the French Overseas Territories
• Corporate and investment banking with a global expertise in investment banking, financing and global markets.

Societe Generale is also a significant player in specialised financing and insurance, private banking, asset management and securities services.

Societe Generale is included in the international socially-responsible investment indices: FTSE4good and ASPI. www.societegenerale.com

* including employees of Societe Marseillaise de Credit acquired in September 2010 by Credit du Nord

Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking

At the core of Societe Generale's universal banking business model, the Corporate & Investment Bank is a well-diversified and leading player with nearly 12,000 professionals present in 33 countries across Europe, the Americas and Asia-Pacific.

Standing by its clients across sectors, the Corporate & Investment Bank tailors solutions for them by capitalising on its worldwide expertise in investment banking, global finance, and global markets.

• For Corporates, Financial Institutions and public sector: providing a global advisory approach (M&A, debt, equity transaction, capital structure, and asset & liability management), as well as quality capital raising solutions across the debt and equity spectrum, optimised financing and expert risk management responses notably in the realm of foreign exchange and rates derivatives.
• For investors: offering reliable and sound investment opportunities and risk management solutions through its integrated global markets platform delivering seamless access to markets (equity, rates, credit, currencies, commodities and derivatives), as well as advice and solid financial engineering, quality of execution and forward-looking research across asset classes.

www.sgcib.com

SOURCE Societe Generale