Thank you for participating to this premium level conference. We have the pleasure to host Frédéric Oudéa, CEO of Société Générale. If I may, I would suggest to start with a quick presentation of the performance for the first nine months of the year, and then maybe we can keep a 20-25 minutes time for a Q&A session, which will not be recorded, for your information. Thank you very much. Frédéric, the floor is yours.
Thank you very much, Cedric. Good afternoon to everyone. I'm delighted to be able to present during this annual conference organized by our CIB division. Again, a virtual presentation. We are getting used to it, I guess. I will go through beyond the results from strategic initiatives and our strategic roadmap. Effectively, I just would like to remind you some key figures for the first nine months of this year, which is obviously a very strong year for us, on the back, of course, of a good economic environment, so a strong rebound, despite, as we can see currently, still some sanitary uncertainties.
May I say also perhaps something of interest on the back also of an environment where we have step-by-step more clarity. You know that the European Commission made its proposal for the implementation of the so-called Basel IV Agreement. As you might know, a proposition which is taking into account the specificity of the financing of the European economy by banks predominantly by banks, and also the need to have a level playing field compared with other banking systems. I'll be happy to answer questions on this topic if you have. If we were as French banks not necessarily happy with all the package, we saw some progress in the understanding of what is at stake.
Now, to come to the figures, let me just highlight again the strong performance in terms of gross operating income, which is a mix of a very strong rebound of our revenues, in particular, of course, in the capital markets, but not just in the capital markets. All the businesses are actually contributing, and also, the maintenance of a strong, cost discipline. The second element is, of course, a low cost of risk at 16 basis points, which is the result, I will say, of course, of a cocktail of government support schemes, but we see low cost of risk, including in geographies where we did not see any significant support from governments. I have in mind, in particular, Africa or even Russia.
Also, I think, a sound credit origination throughout the past years, and of course, the very conservative provisioning that we did in 2020. All in all, we have a EUR 4 billion group net income for the first nine months of 2021, and a double-digit return on tangible equity, which is of course, very positive. If I look now at the capital, we've been able to basically maintain stable the CET1 ratio, 13.4%, sorry. It means a headroom of 400 basis points, more than 400 basis points above our MDA, so-called MDA level.
Despite the fact that we had, of course, to absorb some regulatory headwinds, as well as, of course, the financing of the current share buyback of EUR 470 million, its execution is well advanced. We have executed 60% so far of this share buyback. Let me just remind you that we have provisioned EUR 2.03 per share for the first nine months of 2021. Now let's turn to more strategic initiatives. I would say beyond the financial results this year, I think it's very important when you look at the number of different initiatives announced and currently implemented. Clearly, probably, the main important area is French retail. Here, it's really two projects.
As you know, the implementation of a merger, a domestic consolidation between our two networks. We have given much more details on the setup of this new bank just a few weeks ago, and we are going to be in a process of execution in 2022, in particular regarding the preparation of the IT migration. I will come back to that in a few minutes. The second element is the development of Boursorama, which is an undisputed leader in online banking in France. Beyond this, we announced, as you know, a series of developments in international retail with banks which are all of them taking advantage of the penetration of digital channels.
Among our geographies, it is in Russia actually that we have seen the biggest acceleration in the usage of digital channels by our clients. It's also true for ALD. I will come back to that in this new mobility market. On the GBIS side, this wholesale activity, which is a world, in my view, of risk sharing, definitely also very strong progress in the implementation of a strategy which has maintained the scope of businesses but with a target which is to reduce the standard deviation of our performance in a really distressed situation. This has been executed remarkably. Let me just enter again a little bit more in the detail.
For the French retail, as you know, this new bank will have 10 million clients. It has as an objective to improve the quality of service delivered and to be in the top three in this market in terms of client segmentation. It wants also to be a much more efficient bank. We are going to benefit from EUR 450 million of synergies with the optimization of the network, with a reorganization of the back offices and of course, the fact that we will have just one IT system instead of two.
It is also a bank which want to make a difference in terms of sustainability through a different offering, whether it's the credit or for example the investment solutions in our new open architecture, which is moving forward very well. As you can see on the slide, the idea is really now that we have designed more in detail the business model, is to prepare the implementation. The legal merger should take roughly one year, around the approval by the supervisory authorities. We are going to prepare in 2022 the IT migration, which will take something like six months. In 2023, it's nine regional banks that we have to migrate, and it will take some time given this number of banks.
From I would say the second half of 2023 onwards, it will be of course the implementation of this new bank. Let me highlight of course the performance of Boursorama. I see more and more interest in Boursorama. Boursorama is, let me just remind you, more than a seven-year growth story, started from basically nothing to a bank now with 3.1 million clients. A position which is very clear, the cheapest bank in France and the number one online bank in France with a very high level of satisfaction by its clients. Clients who are autonomous and precisely are able to deal with digital channels for all their banking services.
It's a simple, it's a very disciplined model, but very comprehensive when you look at the range of products, and you have here on the slides a few figures. It's a big. It is becoming a big bank. Here, when I say this, I look at the size of the balance sheet versus many neobanks. Here, we talk about EUR 45 billion of deposits and financial savings, and EUR 13 billion of loans. It's real and significant figures. The client acquisition is going very well with a model which is, of course, very efficient. We just need to add a dozen of staff then to conquer 500,000 new clients. It's really minimal.
Again, it's a bank with full compliance and risk standards, the ones of Société Générale, of course, benefiting also to a certain extent that it is a streamlined, very disciplined model. Again, with full security, which I think going forward will be an advantage. Let me say a few words on international retail. We are, as you know, in geographies which overall have better environment than Eurozone, at least in terms of interest rates. We expect pretty solid progressive rebound of the economies. We saw already the beginning of an interest rate normalization in most countries, Romania, Czech Republic, and Russia, as you can see.
Of course, with banks which, for some of them have, an excess of deposits versus loans, it should translate step by step into the PNL. The commercial dynamics are remaining good. You see the figures here. A little bit less in Africa where, well, again, the growth has not yet rebounded. Overall, we have positive figures. Across the board, it's a lot around the digitalization. Of course, with Africa being in a different situation where you don't have to adjust legacy retail networks with branches, they have skipped that phase. In Czech Republic, in Romania, in Russia, we are refocusing the networks and developing further the digital channels. We see similar patterns, I would say, from clients in those different geographies.
If I look at ALD, well, ALD, as you know, is one of the jewels of Société Générale. Same thing, a long-term growth story. Year- after- year, it has delivered. Well, needless to say, this year, it's I would say, a phenomenal performance because on top of the structural growth, it's fair to say we are benefiting from the extraordinary situation of the car market with a shortage of new cars and of course, prices of used cars which have gone up. And as you know, well, we resell many cars a year, and we are benefiting from that. That will not last forever, but nevertheless, that's very nice.
Beyond this, as you know, it's a very innovative company which will benefit from this growth market, which is able to innovate also by acquiring startups and integrating these startups. You have here some of these startups. We've also the vision that we are not just around the car usage, but building beyond more global mobility solutions with partners. Very interestingly, we see also a good switch of their car fleet towards electric cars. If I may, for companies which want to show their commitment to ESG, to a certain extent, changing the car fleet, switching to electric vehicles is a relatively quick, relatively easy way to show the commitment, including to the staff.
I think we see that and as you can see on the slide, 40% of the new cars delivered will be effectively electric cars by 2025. We are really accompanying the transition. If I move now to GBIS, well, clearly, we had, as you know, a very strong performance. It's true for the capital markets, where we executed perfectly well, if I may say, the strategic roadmap of last year, regarding investment solutions. Job is done. Actually, the activities which suffered in the first half of last year will record the best year ever for these activities. That shows, beyond this capacity to change the structure of the portfolio, also the quality of the client franchise.
Beyond this, I must say, I'm very happy also with the financing and advisory revenues. On the back of course, a strong corporate activity in terms of M&A, but beyond, of course, the ESG trend, and we are able to generate additional revenues from advisory mandates or of course, the financing issuance. Let me say, we try to be a pioneer. All the non-financial extra-financial rating agencies have been upgrading Société Générale across all the parameters of ESG policy, and in particular, regarding environment. We are a leader in the financing of renewable. Also we try to be pioneer regarding new technologies which will be needed to ensure this transition and trying to limit the increase of temperature.
I'd like to mention in particular regarding hydrogen, where we are the bank selected by TotalEnergies and Air Liquide, and thus in the structuring of the first fund dedicated to financing equity stakes in hydrogen projects. I think again here we are, we know that we might not benefit always from so good and so strong market conditions, in particular on the equity markets. Nevertheless, we were very happy to demonstrate the quality of the franchise. As I said, we are now much better positioned in case of again further turbulences in the market because we have reduced our stress test very significantly on the investment solution products.
Again, when I look long-term, again, beyond the next few quarters and next strategic roadmap, we have, I think, three major angles for action, for transformation. The client centricity more than ever, focusing on the client needs, the evolution of their behaviors, the evolutions of their expectations.
It's very important to keep close, and of course, be able to accompany our own clients in their own transformation trajectory. ESG is going to be a revolution for the banking sector and for us, and a lot of hard work to, of course, beyond the commitments that we have already taken, very clear commitments on the fossil energy, shift the portfolio of credits, shift again, the product range that we propose to our clients in terms of investment solutions towards really clients, activities, products, which are in line with the scenarios limiting the increase of temperature. Of course, efficiency remains a key objective. We have to further lower the break-even point of our activities.
We have different plans that we are currently implemented, but we expect in the next three years to have reduced structurally the break-even to improve structurally also the profitability of our group. Let me just add a final word on the value creation for shareholders. Clearly, you see on the figures the very good results of 2021. An exceptional year between 2019, where you see the progress in terms of earnings per share, which is pretty spectacular. In terms also of profitability, knowing that we have more and more equity capital requirements based on again the regulatory framework and of course of net asset value per share.
The idea is to pursue step by step the rerating of the share price, thanks to a sustainable delivery of results. We want to maintain our payout policy, the distribution to shareholders. 50% allocated to the businesses, organic growth. We have a model which is more geared towards organic growth than many European banks. I would have a very different strategic position if we were just a retail bank in Eurozone, but we have many other businesses. We have different geographies, which means more growth. Of course, considering a limited number of acquisitions, which can make sense, and be part of enhancing the business model.
As you know, and it's public, we are currently in discussion with the shareholders of LeasePlan to combine ALD and LeasePlan and create the indisputable leader in the mobility sector. Then, of course, the other 50% of the capital generated will be distributed to our shareholders with a mix of dividend in cash and share buyback. From that perspective, certainly, myself, but the board, we have no taboos, and we want to leverage on both levers to distribute our capital. That's what I wanted to say.