Two other divisions will be further developed

French banks are in order of battle in the Bank Finance and investment (BFI). Société Générale announced yesterday a discount flat all of these trades. And Calyon, the institution of Credit Agricole, has, according to our information, launched a new organisation of its investment bank, effective since September 8.

These changes occur at a time key. Société Générale and Calyon BFI recorded very strong growth in the first half 2006 results, but the Council in mergers and acquisitions market and trading operations are beginning to give signs of weakness.

"We wanted to take advantage of our good results to prepare for future growth," explains the "Echos", Jean-Pierre Mustier, the head of the BFI of Société Générale. His project, called "Step Up 2010", which must be implemented in early 2007 and which will result not in a drop in the workforce, will change in depth the face of the Bank. Funding and investment of the Société Générale Bank consisted so far of two poles, with fundraising activities and professions of rates on the one hand, actions and activities to the Board in mergers and acquisitions on the other.

In the future, these past activities will be integrated in another division, the relations with clients, which should be led by Thierry Aulagnon, the current head of the Investment Bank. "The objective would be to allow bankers to better offer customers integrated solutions, ranging from the Council on an acquisition financing," explains Jean-Pierre Mustier.

A new division dedicated to actions, including both research that the trading and derivatives activities, at the same time will come. Two other divisions will be further developed. One, called "lifting of capital and funding", will bring together all the trades related to the issuance of shares and bonds, structured finance and coverage of exchange for issuers. It should be led by Jean-Luc Parer, the current head of the debt. The other, called "fixed income, foreign exchange and commodities", will be dedicated to the activities of "trading" and financial engineering for investors, and conducted by Marc Breillout. "We decided to push our"business model"one step further for more towards it the client", summarizes Jean-Pierre Mustier.

Redesign of the branch

This reorganization is also the opportunity of a reworking of the direction to the head of the BFI. Jean-Pierre Mustier, which was until now only the reins, expands in fact two assistants, Patrick Soulard, currently responsible for large companies and financial institutions, and Christophe Mianné, today Director derivatives on shares and indices and future head of the division shares. The Executive Committee of the Bank, it will have 16 people instead of 12.

At Calyon, the reorganization is limited to the Investment Bank. Launched by the new pattern of the Investment Bank, Gilles de Dumast, it is effective since September 8. Dedicated both to the Council in mergers and acquisitions, and the primary trades shares, the Calyon Investment Bank is now organized into three divisions to two previously.

Its new organizational structure includes a centre dedicated to the mergers and acquisitions ("global corporate finance"), soon led by François Kayat (see below), a centre devoted to the issue of shares ("global equity markets") activities, led by Alix Caudrillier, and a new set, directly led by Gilles de Dumast, bringing bankers specializing in one sector ("global sector group"). They must think about operations, and offer the customers a range of services, ranging from the Council on an acquisition to an introduction on the stock exchange. Here also, the reorganization is justified by the need to better serve the client.