Banque Société Générale Sociale (BSGS)Community Involvement by Banking the Unbankable

The Theme: Inclusive BankingThe prevention of financial exclusion increasingly becomes a social policy priority especially in developed, cashless economies such as France or the EU overall. Hence, our choice of topic: Banking the ”Unbankable”.

The Idea: Adapting International Best PracticesIn Austria, we observed the successive regional roll-out of a new concept addressing this universal need for transactional banking services, irrespective of the individual’s credit worthiness. The ERSTE Foundation, major shareholder of CEE retail banking player ”Erste Bank”, successfully designed an integrative concept based on in-house capabilities and the support offered by various other organizations, including Caritas, Vienna Insurance Group, and regional social service organizations.

Launched in 2006, ”Zweite Bank’s” dedicated branch offices today offer basic banking services and counseling free of charge to formerly excluded citizens in half a dozen Austrian agglomerations, with the goal of transferring these “special” customers back to the bank’s regular market offering within three years. The European Savings Banks Group’s ”CSR Lab” recently highlighted this pilot project in its research.

The Team: A Broad Base of Shared Experiences for our CitizenActOur team combines business and law education backgrounds, school and university experience in France (DSP, HEC), perennial stays abroad, work experience in Eastern Europe and community work commitment including fund raising activities in several countries. As a team, we successfully participated in L’Oréal’s eStrat 2008, advancing to the semi-finals.

We thus believe in our ability to deliver results for this project together with Société Générale under the CitizenAct program.

if you would like to review the team members’ curricula vitarum, please feel free to contact us.

«BSGS»

General Public

Business Clients

Special Retail Segments

Bulk Retail Customers

e.g. Société Générale de

Surveillance SA

e.g. consumer credits for domestic

energy efficiency

The Unbankable

Public Attention: Media, NGOs, Rankings, other Facilitators

Communication«do good and speak about it»

improved ranking«Community Involvement»

Employees voluntaryinvolvement

rewarding experience

“weak” stakeholders internal & external facilitators actors (customers)

Addressing “Weak Stakeholders” may yield Superior Social Impact and Public Relations

Société Générale’s existing Strategic CSR initiatives are highly integrated into the bank’s general product portfolio and business activities, thus however mostly targeted at business clients or specific, typically affluent retail audiences. Complementary to this existing range of CSR activities, emphasis on a dedicated philanthropic project holds the potential for significant improvement for the firm’s standing among industry peers in perceived ”Community Involvement” and related rankings. By involving a broad base of employees, such a project could attract positive public attention both domestically (France) as well as eventually abroad if rolled out (especially to developing growth markets).

The Unbankable

Basic Banking plus External Resources may leverage Société Générale’s Capabilities

basic bank account incl. debit card, free of charge for anyone

counseling

municipalities, local administration

NGOsdebt counselors

social security, related agencies

(re-)integration & migrant organisations

existing specialized services, e.g. migrant banking products

Employees

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Reaching out to individuals with no access to commercial banking products creates an access link for social service organisations’ offerings which could thus be effectively combined through the BSGS channel. Joining forces thus multiplies the social impact of the project and increases public awareness while spreading the cost and risk burden.

training, incentives for participation

Banque Société Générale Sociale (BSGS)Community Involvement to Make Everyone Bankable

Benefits for the Stakeholder Target AudienceFellow citizens who for various reasons face life situations in which commercial banking services are no longer available to them will finally be included into the basic transactional framework of modern society again, thus enabling them to effectively seek a path towards full re-integration. Accepting job offers, making monthly payments and being able to use online-banking are just some of the direct benefits that can be provided to these individuals and families at negligibly low marginal costs.

Benefits for Société Générale and its EmployeesAccording to Société Générale’s Sustainability Reports and corporate website, it holds an above-average or even leading position in various CSR rankings. “Community Involvement” therein however currently is the ”weak point”, as the bank “only” performs en par with the industry average. The BSGS project provides an attractive opportunity with high cost-effectiveness to raise public awareness for both the problem as well as Société Générale’s unique answer to it. At the same time, the firm will acquire new knowledge and capabilities that may prove useful for its operations in developing markets like those of Eastern Europe. Also, as the Erste Bank example shows, it is a possibility to actively involve employees and even retirees in CSR activities on a continuous and broad basis.

Costs and Timeframe for ImplementationBased on Erste Bank’s experience in the Austrian Market, costs should not exceed those of a standard small to medium size branch office in an urban environment. Within the CitizenAct timeframe, we believe to be able to complete the most substantial pre-launch activities so that a first pilot BSGS office could realistically open in late 2009 in Paris.

bibliography:European Savings Banks Group "CSR Lab", 2008. Business Involvement to Enhance Social Inclusion at Local Level. European Commission, Directorate-General for Employment & Social Affairs, 2008. Financial Services Provision and Prevention of Financial Exclusion. Halme M. and Laurila J., 2008. Philanthropy, Integration or Innovation? Financial and Societal Outcomes of CR. Journal of Business Ethics, April 2008. Porter M.E. and Kramer M.R., 2006. Strategy and Society: The Link Between Competitive Advantage and CSR. Harvard Business Review, December 2006, pp.78-92.