AGM 2021

May 18, 2021

Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, hello. This year, once again, COVID-19 has led us to organize this general meeting without your actual attendance. We are very sorry for that, and we hope we will find you once again next year at La Grande Arche as in previous years. Nevertheless, you've received all useful information for voting under the regular conditions and within the normal time frames. Those who asked to do so may ask their questions up to 5:00 PM via the internet. They received a code to access the website. We have over 24,175 shareholders present in person or by proxy. You're able to send in your written questions, including by electronic means, and many of you voted. The quorum is set at 58.556%. It is now time to open this ordinary general meeting held on first notice of meeting, based on a notice published in the Compulsory Gazette and in Les Petites Affiches on the 12th of April 2021. All written questions and replies are available on the website for the general meeting. We'll also answer the different topics raised after a survey that was carried out with you. This survey confirms our wish or your wish to find out more about the group's strategy and outlooks, including when it comes to a dividend up the year marked by the COVID crisis that impacted income in the first half and the share price. Amongst your questions, I note your interest on retail banking strategy in France in particular, and then the reasons for the disposal of Lyxor, as well as the ESG strategy. This survey also shows the renewed interest shown by shareholders for individual shareholding and in particular for Société Générale. Individual shareholders, excluding employee shareholders, increased from 4.9% at the end of 2019 to 7.7% at the end of 2020, up by almost 60%. Today, in addition to Frédéric Oudéa and myself, I'd like to present the new management team that was set up as of the month of August of last year and that embodies the bank's renewal. The two VPs are unseen, Diony Lebot, in charge of risk, compliance, financial services, and insurance, and Philippe Aymerich, in charge of retail banking in France and internationally. The three deputy vice presidents, who are also here, William Kadouch-Chassaing, Deputy Vice President and CFO, Slawomir Krupa, Deputy Vice President in charge of GBIS, and Sébastien Proto, Deputy Vice President in charge of retail banking in France and private banking. During our meeting today, first, we will talk about our income with William Kadouch-Chassaing. Frédéric Oudéa will present a strategy with two additional presentations on retail banking in France given by Sébastien Proto and investment banking presented by Slawomir Krupa. We'll talk about corporate governance and compensation with Jean-Bernard Lévy and myself. A discussion and a vote on the resolutions. We can now move on to formalities, forming the bureau for our general meeting. To sit as vote tellers, we have appointed the two shareholders accepting this function and holding per se or as representatives, the largest number of votes. Madame Corinne Perrier, representative of Amundi Asset Management, and Mr. Michael Herskovich, representing BNP Paribas Asset Management. I'd like to thank them for their acceptance. I suggest that as Secretary of the meeting, we should appoint Patrick Suet, Secretary of the Board of Directors. The auditors were called on according to law and regulation. I'm referring to Mr. Micha Missakian, representing cabinet Ernst & Young et Autres, and Mr. Jean-Marc Mickeler, representing Deloitte & Associés. I keep at your disposal on the bureau of this meeting the usual documents listed on this slide. The documents and legal information forming the documentation that is required before the meeting and whose list is also displayed on the Société Générale website, were also sent to shareholders or kept at the headquarters of Société Générale. As each year, our discussions are broadcast live on the internet and may be accessed later on on our website. You may also follow our discussions over the phone. Before giving the floor to general management, I would like to send out a few messages to you. First of all, I wish to each and every one of you, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, the best possible health in the face of this unprecedented pandemic since a century. For general management and group employees, I'd like to express our gratitude for the professionalism and the availability they have shown throughout this crisis. Our first concern was the health of each and every one of you. To our customers, I'd like to say that we are fully committed to supporting them in this crisis and fully mobilized at their service to rekindle the economy in France and abroad. The lockdown has changed our relations with customers. They have been strengthened, and their channels have been diversified with, of course, the emergence of new technologies. We must be increasingly agile. Once we have returned to a normal health situation, our business will not be quite the same. The context will have changed. States expect banks to also be players in the recovery. Regulators will have to rethink some rules. Some risks have become major, such as cybersecurity, for example. Working from home creates new expectations for working conditions that have been redesigned, and we must define a new model. In 2020, many strategic projects were launched. Your board is particularly attentive, especially with the firmer couple, the good follow-up of the group's financial roadmap. You will have some insight into this with a presentation by Frédéric Oudéa and Sébastien Proto, as well as Slawomir Krupa. As each year, let us begin by coming back to our results with William Kadouch-Chassaing. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Ladies and gentlemen, hello. First, I'd like to come back to our results in 2020. I'd like to briefly comment on the results in the first quarter and our policy when it comes to a return to shareholders. In 2020, we saw three key highlights. Our activities were resilient despite the impact of an exceptional crisis. Income in 2020 are down by 7.6% on a like-for-like basis as compared to 2019. Underlying net income reaches EUR 1.4 billion, down by 65% due to two factors, the decline in income and increase in the cost of risk. The peak of this impact was in the first half. Market activities were impacted by a dislocation in the first quarter, retail banking suffered from health measures. In the second half, income picked up significantly with sturdy growth in financial services to companies in finance investment banking, a nice pickup, and resilience in retail banking. A second highlight, we nevertheless attained all of our financial targets. We reached our target in terms of underlying cost base at EUR 16.5 billion in 2020, that is 5.2% less than in 2019. The cost of risk was lower than expected at 64 basis points versus a maximum of 70 basis points considered earlier in the year. Capital is still strong at 13.4% at the end of the year above our target. The third highlight, we remain concentrated on executing our main strategic initiatives. We announced the merger of our retail banking networks in France. We reviewed the risk profile of our market activities and especially risk linked to structured products. We announced strategic plans in three of our growth drivers, ALD, Komerční banka, and Boursorama. Lastly, we made progress in our strategy as regards sustainable development. We're targeting to become the leader in sustainable development. Our leadership in this area can be seen in top-ranking extra-financial scores and rising in 2020 thanks to progress in key areas, the energy transition, supporting our clients, diversity, and inclusion. One example in the field of the energy transition, we are the world's number two in financing renewable energy and number one in advisory. This is a major achievement given the size and the outlooks for growth on this market. As I said before, the results for 2020 are marked by the steep crisis we experienced. Underlying net income, which is EUR 1.435 million, down by almost 65% in one year due to three factors, a decline in income by 7.6% on a like-for-like basis, and the cost of commercial risk multiplied by 2.7. On the other hand, we have a decline in overhead expenses. Net income group share, as published, is negative for the year at minus EUR 258 million, including two supplementary elements of an accounting nature, EUR 684 million in terms of impact, due to the write-off of goodwill for market activities and investor services, and EUR 650 million for the write-off of deferred taxes on assets. These two factors did not impact the organic generation of capital. The write-off of goodwill and deferred taxes on assets have already been deducted from the capital ratio. We have a strong group that has been strengthened in 2020. We have a core Tier 1 ratio, our regulatory capital ratio, at 13.4% at the end of 2020, about 440 basis points above regulatory requirements. An increase of 70 basis points as compared to the fourth quarter of 2019. All of the capital ratios are also strong. Tier 1 ratio, total capitalization, and the so-called TLAC ratio. Secondly, the group benefits from favorable liquidity. We have, at the end of the year, our liquidity, which is EUR 243 billion, up by EUR 53 million over the year. Let me now turn to the first quarter, confirming the strong recovery of results expected in 2021. Net income reported at the first quarter reached EUR 814 million, despite the full impact of the so-called IFRIC 21 charge, leading to recording, in one quarter, nearly EUR 799 million in operating income and regulatory expenses. Underlying net income, which is EUR 1.3 billion, leading to a return on tangible equity, ROTE, of 10.1%. The group's performance can be explained due to two factors. The strong growth in terms of our gross operating expenses. Gross operating expenses on the line is up by 2.2 times as compared to last year due to the increase in income, plus 21%, and costs dropping, minus 2.4%, creating a significant scissors effect. Secondly, the second factor, the cost of risk is improving. For the quarter, it reaches 21 basis points, far lower than the first quarter of 2020, when it was at 65 basis points, despite a prudential approach when it comes to provisions. A few words to conclude on creating value for shareholders. The strong recovery in our performance noted in the second half of the year 2020, and confirmed in the first quarter of 2021, leads to a growth of our net profits per share underlying since one year, reaching EUR 0.83 for the first quarter of 2021. In the first quarter of 2021, tangible net asset reached EUR 55.20 per share, up as compared to the fourth quarter of 2020. Regarding distribution, we propose to the general meeting a dividend equivalent of EUR 0.55 per share, in compliance with the maximum authorized by the ECB's recommendation. A supplementary share buyback program will also be launched in the fourth quarter, subject to the non-renewal of the ECB's recommendation in September and authorization for it to be rolled out. This would mean an additional amount of EUR 470 million. For 2021, we're targeting a payout of 50% of net underlying income group share. That can include up to 10% of the net income group share in the form of share buybacks. Thank you. Thank you, William. I'll now give the floor to Micha Missakian on behalf of the company auditors. Dear shareholders, I will first summarize our audit report and the consolidated financial statements and the annual accounts presented in the brochure given to you. The fundamental goal affirmation is to obtain reasonable assurance about the regularity, sincerity, and a faithful image of the accounts, and the fact that they do not contain any significant anomalies. We certified, without any reservations, the annual reports and the consolidated financial statements drawn up by your board. About the consolidated financial statements, I would just draw your attention to our opinion. We'd like to point out two points in the annex, IFRS 16 and rental contracts. About the annual financial statements, and without challenging our opinion, we'd like to draw attention to one annex disclosing the impact of the change in accounting method with respect to the presentation of regulatory savings. The global crisis linked to COVID-19 creates particular conditions when it comes to preparing and auditing the accounts. Exceptional measures taken within the framework of the health emergency led to measures that have an impact on companies, organizations, and how audits are performed. Within this complex and changing environment, we have in our reports, reference to the key points with respect to any significant anomalies that were the most important for this year's audit. The key points of the audit, bearing on the consolidated financial statements and the individual financial statements are the impact of the economic crisis linked to COVID-19 and the assessment of credit risk, and the assessment of the write-off of consumer loans in France and in the U.S., the valuation of complex financial instruments, and the IT risk on derivatives and structured assets. The key points of the audit bearing on the consolidated financial statements relate to the fair value for interests for any risks in retail banking in France, and the assessment of acquisition goodwill. The key points in the audit bearing only on the individual financial statements bear on the assessment of participation shares, other long-term securities held by the company. On the company's management report, we have no observations to make with respect to the sincerity thereof. With respect to the individual financial statements, we have no observations to make in view of the specific audits provided for by law, and especially when it comes to other information to be communicated to shareholders, in particular, the report on corporate governance and on management. I will now summarize our special report on related third-party agreements for 2020. We must communicate, based on the information provided to us, the characteristics and the main features, and the grounds justifying your company's interest in the agreements that we have discovered in the framework of our mission, without having to express an opinion on the usefulness, if they're well-founded, or to seek for the existence of other agreements. In that respect, we inform you that we received no communication on any such agreements during the period, and no agreement with approved by the general meeting, and which will continue to be executed during the year, which will be ending. Thank you for your attention. Thank you, Monsieur Cann. Frédéric Oudéa will give you the main presentation. We'll have two films, one on retail banking in France, and the other on investment banking. Frédéric, over to you. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, good afternoon. I hope that you are keeping well in these uncertain times. This unprecedented crisis has been lasting for more than one year now. Unfortunately, once again, our annual assembly needs to be held online. We hope that we'll be able to draw a line under this as soon as possible. We are maybe reaching the end of our last lockdown. I would like to thank the new shareholders for joining today, and thank the longstanding shareholders for their loyalty. My objective today is to take stock of the previous year, and to share with you our vision for 2021. Thirdly, talk about how we are preparing for the next strategic steps, and my beliefs for going forward until 2025. 2020 will be a year that we will all remember as being difficult, as being also a year of great mobilization. We focused on two main priorities. First of all, maintain the security of our employees and clients, and at the same time, play our role as an important economic agent. We have made sure that our actions and activities were maintained. We worked with the authorities of all the countries in which we operate. A good example of this is what we did in France with the state-backed loans to support the cash flow of companies to the tune of EUR 18 billion out of EUR 135 billion, backed by the state. I think that in this crisis, we have reinforced our trust-based relationship with our clients. We have also helped our employees and supported them throughout, and supported our communities with a special solidarity program that was rolled out across the world. I'd like to thank all of our teams that have been committed from the very beginning across the world to helping Société Générale out. Since the very beginning, we have shown how responsible and useful we are as a bank, and as an important player. In terms of financial performance, 2020 was very much a mixed year with two halves. The first half was extremely difficult with the huge impacts of the crisis on our business, with the economies that grounded to a halt. The double hit of, first of all, there being less business, and then the higher cost of risk and the dislocation of markets, and all the changes that were brought about. These impacts were felt by all the players in the European banking sector, but we were hit more specifically, because we have a lot of structured investment products in our business model. Also, the ban on paying out dividends had a huge impact on ourselves and on our shareholders. In such circumstances, the first half of the year threw up a lot of questions on our ability to find the right options to remain profitable going forward. The share, Société Générale, dropped to €11, an excessive undervaluation that was not acceptable. We were able to act quick with important strategic decisions to reassure on the short-term, while also building the mid-term future, and protecting our franchises. The second half, on the other hand, was more encouraging with a pickup in our performances that reassured the markets. We met our objectives and our guidance on costs, on the cost of risk and capital. Overall, we have proved our resilience and our ability to bounce back. Our share reacted positively. This improvement has been carried forward this year with very good results for Q1, a good presentation to the market of our strategy on investment banking and on financing that was well welcomed by investors. As you can see, the share price has caught up and now stands at EUR 26 with the best performance to date for European banks. I am confident on the fact that this catching up for our valuation will continue quarter after quarter for this year, as long as we deliver recurring performance and execute with discipline our strategic roadmap. In terms of dividend distribution, we were allowed at the end of the year by the European Supervisor to resume payment for dividend for 2020, for an amount that initially will fall under strict regulations. Like William said, we're going to be paying out the maximum that we are authorized, i.e., EUR 0.55 per share, and we will add to this if we are allowed to in the fall. We also are looking to a share buyback program. It's a program that allows to increase the net profit per share going forward, and it's another way of distributing capital to shareholders and is very relevant when the value of the share is underneath its actual value or the value of tangible assets. For 2021, it's going to be a very busy year for us, but I think that we will have a lot of success. After completing our refocusing program, with Lyxor, we'll be on the front foot and working on strategic projects to reinforce our diversified business model. In retail banking in France, we are aiming for 15 million clients by 2025. With a project of creating a new bank resulting from bringing together Crédit du Nord and Société Générale. Sébastien Proto, one of our new joint general directors, will be talking about this in greater detail in a minute. We are also going to be speeding up the development plan for Boursorama, leader in online banking, who broke a new record since they onboarded 200,000 new clients in three months. Boursorama is an important player in online banking in France, and the target is to have 4.5 million clients by 2025. That will give us a very differentiating footprint in the French market with two large banks that complete one another and both very profitable. Now for international retail banking, KB in Czech Republic has already disclosed its Change 2025 strategic plan. KB wants to become a leader in terms of digital and responsible banking in Czech Republic. Generally speaking, in all our countries, the potential for our subsidiaries is very promising. Likewise, for our specialized financial activities like insurance, ALD has launched its Move 2025 plan with an aim to reinforce its position as a global leader in a promising area. Over and beyond its organic growth, ALD will be pursuing with its targeted acquisitions and its long-term partnerships, such as the one with Banco Sabadell in Spain. Now for Global Banking & Investor Solutions. After having completed our new range for structured projects that has improved our risk profile, we have just presented to the market our midterm strategy on these activities. We are going to harness the potential of these activities and make sure that they contribute to the group's income and results. Slawomir Krupa, who took over as joint general director for these businesses from the 1st of January, will be talking about this in a minute. In 2021, more generally, we will be completing a new strategic step forward. By the end of the year, we will have more visibility on the sanitary situation, the recovery after the crisis, the regulation, and the framework set out by the European Commission on the implementation of Basel IV agreements that we expect now and in September. Over and beyond the statements that have been done for our business lines, for the first quarter of 2022, we will be presenting the trajectory for the group for the 2022/2025 period. We have already set out a clear course and restated our ambition. We want to build on our diversified business model, a business model that is now balanced and refocused. We have validated with the board a number of strategic choices that will allow us to improve year after year, the competitiveness of our business lines and the profitability of our group by building on our position of leadership and on our expertise. This diversification can become an asset in the long term if we continue to build synergies. Synergies with our clients, with platforms in terms of expertise to offset the regulatory constraints that are putting downward pressure on large banks such as Société Générale. We want to be a disruptive bank. We want to be able to reinvent ourselves and seize opportunities in a disruptive world. Incremental transformation is no longer enough when you look at how quickly things are changing. We need to build the bank for the future. It needs to be digital. We need expertise. We need to be responsible. We need to reinvent our business models and create new ones for the future by relying on new technologies. Now to achieve all of this, we are going to use three main levers. First of all, client satisfaction and customer centricity. We need to focus on our clients at all times and be there for them. Our ambition for all our business lines is to meet the needs of our clients and to think about their needs in the future. Second lever, we need to reinforce our operational efficiency. We want to work to be more effective and to reduce our cost structurally so that we can be more profitable. We also want to be more agile, and we want our process to be more qualitative thanks to digital technologies. We will also be paying close attention to internal control and risk management. Third lever, the definition and the upholding of our ESG commitments. ESG issues are priorities and have been so for many a year now. We are making progress in our commitments as our good non-financial assessments for 2020 speak to, and our good rankings. No company will be able to develop itself in the future if they do not place ESG at the very heart of their strategy. As a bank and as an important financing player, we have a role to play. 2020 was a turning point in that area. We are at a crossroads when it comes to the environment, governance, and social issues. We want to speed things up, and we want to integrate all of these issues at the heart of the strategy of the group and our business lines. We have strong ambitions so that we can have a positive environmental and social contribution. Regarding the fight against climate change, we are committed to a climate strategy that is proactive to support our clients throughout the transition in a responsible manner. We're going to align our activities with the Paris Agreement. We are going to reduce our exposure to fossil fuels, we will speed up our support to developing renewable energies. Since 2025, our exposure to coal has gone down significantly, we have an exit strategy for 2030 or 2040, or complete exit strategy for 2030, 2040, depending on the countries. For oil and gas, we are one of the very first banks to have set an ambitious objective, i.e., to reduce this portfolio by 10% before 2025. We've made good progress already. We will be investing in renewable energies as we have been doing so for the last 20-odd years. In the face of these issues, we believe that we need to act collectively to have an impact. We have founded a lot of coalitions that give a framework and a collective impetus to our work. Recently, we have joined two new alliances, Net-Zero Banking and Net-Zero Asset Manager. It is a commitment that will give a lot of structure to what we do and to all of our business so that we can fit into a carbon neutral trajectory by 2050. For the social side of things, we are investing in employability, in training, in mobility for our employees, and we are constantly discussing this with our employees. This is very important against the backdrop of the huge and quick evolutions in banking. We are going to have to restructure, and we want to do this in a responsible manner. That's why we need to anticipate. We have also reinforced our commitment in terms of diversity with an objective of 30% of women in executive positions by 2023. We're also paying close attention to our contribution to sustainable development in the areas where we operate from France to Africa and everything in between. It's on these strong foundations and on the results of the studies that we've carried out with our stakeholders, that we are completing our strategic ESG roadmap for 2025, and a presentation will be done to the markets in the second half of the year. Now, for the long term, we can rely on our strengths and on our expertise. We are a diversified, balanced, integrated bank with a strong European footprint and connected to the rest of the world that its clients trust. We are solid, we are resilient, we have a lot of expertise, we know how to manage risks, and we've proved it, and that's very important for a financial institution. We are a bank where the employees are absolutely unbelievable and are truly committed to the company. With all of these strengths, and by being good in execution in the years to come, we can confirm our statute as being a reference in European banking, a reference in terms of client satisfaction and in terms of digital technologies. We want to offer the best services by having good financial offers, positive partnerships, and to be a part of new open architecture concepts such as bank as a platform and bank as a service. We want to be disruptive, and we want to stick to our ESG commitments. All of our clients are reinventing themselves, and that means a lot of opportunities for us to roll out our raison d'être, to choose our clients, to choose the projects that we back. Our expertise is fit for purpose for this new world. Now, from the perspective of our shareholders, we are going to remain attractive by paying out 50% of our underlying net result. I'm convinced that the Société Générale share can be attractive in this low-interest rate environment. I've been at the helm of Société Générale the last 10 years. It's been a great pleasure, although I have had to overcome a lot of crises in that time. This global pandemic is clearly one of these challenges. It comes at a time when Europe had not yet completely overcome the challenges of 2008. This crisis has painful consequences for communities and for individuals. It is also an opportunity to think and to act in a more free manner. We have been hit by this crisis in 2020. We've drawn lessons from it. We have done a lot to solidify our business model. 2021 will be the year of recovery. We will continue going forward. We will be determined and reach our strategic milestones that are both ambitious and realistic. I truly believe that we can deliver on a regular basis, quarter after quarter, results that are in keeping with our objectives, which will allow us in the months to come to continue with our development trajectory and to justify the trust that you place in us. Thank you very much for your attention. Hello, everyone. On the 7th of December last, we announced a plan to bring together Société Générale and Crédit du Nord in France. It's a strategic choice with a strong ambition in terms of sales, customer satisfaction, and profitability. This project draws all the consequences for changes that are afoot on the retail banking market. Retail banking will continue to change significantly over the next 10 years. The low interest rates environment will continue to weigh on income. Competition is increasingly strong between neobanks, fintechs, and gap banks on a French market with already cutthroat competition. This competitive pressure must be compounded with pressure from consumers every day with increasingly demanding clients when it comes to banking tactics. All of that weighs on retail banking income. On top of income is all of retail banking that is changing significantly. The regulatory framework is always more demanding. Customers' behavior and their expectations are swiftly changing. Digital is the main challenge in that respect, with competition more and more on the quality of tools and digital pathways. Of course, that is even more true when it comes to exiting the health crisis. All retail banks are permanently in a race for investments. This is the pressure on income, pressure on investments, and therefore overall pressure on profitability that we must take into account with utmost lucidity and anticipating as much as possible. It is in this context that we will find an efficient response with the merger between Société Générale and Crédit du Nord. We have a challenge in terms of investments. Thanks to this merger, we will concentrate all our investments on a single information system that of Société Générale, instead of diluting them, as is the case today on two tools. We have a challenge in terms of transforming our retail banking model to cater to changes in customers' behavior. With this merger, we can build a model benefiting from the respective strengths of each brand to offer them to our 10 million combined clients. We have a challenge to rescale our branches because clients go less to branches. Thanks to this merger, we can reduce the number of branches by 30%, so as to have 1,500 all in all without leaving any city. Because Crédit du Nord branches, in 60% of cases, are located less than one kilometer away from Société Générale branches. This means that by using this geographic proximity, at the same time, we can reduce the number of branches, offer Crédit du Nord clients an access to 1,500 branches instead of 650 today, and have the same number of branches as we have today for Société Générale clients. We have a challenge as well of profitability. This merger means reducing the cost base for our retail banking in France by EUR 450 million by 2025, meaning a level of synergies comparable to that obtained on average in banking mergers. Our goal with this merger is to reach a ROE in a Basel III environment, ranging between 11% and 11.5% in 2025, meaning over 10% in Basel IV. This is an offensive project with this merger. Offensive in terms of customer satisfaction, with the goal of being amongst the top three for our core customers, corporates, professionals, and high wealth individuals. With respect to income, with the wish to make choices in terms of organization, services, and offer so that we can stand out on the French market. It is in this spirit that we are building this future bank of 10 million clients. Concretely, we plan to be the bank offering its clients the best of digital and the best human experience, the best of remote interaction and proximity with the most tailor-made response possible, catering to the specific needs of all our customer categories. Offering the best of digital means having a digital solution for all everyday banking operations, because for these everyday operations, our clients want maximum facility, ease of use. On top of everyday banking, digital will be a key channel to win over new clients and sell our products and services. Between now and 2025, 30% of our sales will be fully digital for eligible products. Offering the best of human expertise, that means rethinking branches to make them centers of expertise. That means freeing up branches from low added value tasks to have more time granted to advisors to play the role as experts and bankers. Offering a custom-made response, starting with the needs of each client category in defining our organization. For example, high-net-worth individuals, clients with a high level of income or assets. Their needs for savings are more elaborate. They all will have access to our 100% ISR savings offer in an open architecture that makes a difference on the French market and putting us in a strong position to be the reference banking savings. Lastly, to offer the best in terms of proximity, that means building retail banking anchored in territories with regional and local levels that can benefit from a wide range of responsibilities. The goal is to have short and fast decision-making channels, which is key to stand out from the competition. This merger will be implemented in 2023, varying the timeframe required for this type of operation with IT migrations. 80% of synergies will be obtained in 2024 and 100% in 2025. To succeed, we've started an intense work of preparation in view of all the issues, IT, legal, regulatory, operational, and human, of course. We have embarked upon negotiations with our social partners. Before summer, we will submit the case to the European Central Bank that will need to approve this merger. A more detailed presentation will be made public in the second half of 2021. Ladies and gentlemen, this merger will enable us to have a stronger and more profitable banking network with a better value proposition for all our clients. At the same time, with accelerated growth of Boursorama, number one online bank in France, we will strengthen our second model, that of purely digital retail banking for private customers. All in all, with the two strategic initiatives, we are targeting 15 million clients by 2025 and will have a greater impact on the French market. I thank you for your attention. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders. I'm Slawomir Krupa, Deputy Vice President in charge of GBIS, Global Banking & Investor Solutions. We presented our 2023 strategic plan to analysts last week as well as to institutional investors. I'll give you a summary here. First, I'd like to present us and our main challenges. GBIS is a client business. All the value we create starts with flow of resilient income from a large and stable client base. The true value is created because we leverage our expertise in sectors and chosen regions on our advisory services, our products, and on intra-group synergies. Our innovation capabilities are a key ingredient in this process of creating value. It is the cornerstone of what we are. Today, we are facing two main challenges in the process of value creation, our sub-optimal cost structure and our sensitivity to extreme shocks. To be clear, the extent of the impact of market dislocations on our performance. Now, to face this, we have a simple roadmap, ensure a sustainable profitability with lower gaps in performance, thanks to a better balance between our income flows, a greater operational lever in our model, less risk, seizing growth opportunities and benefiting from the unique opportunity of CSR that's changing our global economy and the opportunity of digitalization. With this roadmap, we deliver at least 10% of ROE by 2023, mechanically leading to 12%, excluding the temporary contribution to the European Single Resolution Fund. Since we like to build more in the coming years, it is logical to examine our foundations and to verify that this is the time. Like any company in the service sector, our strongest base is our clients. Income from clients amount to EUR 8 billion, split in a balanced way between companies and financial institutions with a low volatility of income. In addition, a very low churn overall. They are loyal to us because for 100 years, we have provided them with high added-value services, advisory services, and an array of products based on our sectoral expertise to the complete spectrum of their needs around the world. That is the key to maximize the capacity to do cross-selling and to optimize the yield on capital, our margin impact, increasing loyalty by increasing the number of connections and links with our clients, and also to strengthen our sectorial impact and our innovation. Both are often based on a global understanding of the value chains or investment needs. The total amount of commissions in our sector remains stable, with a certain rebalancing between different parts of the world. There are key trends that will offer us growth opportunities for which we are well-positioned, and we're determined to seize these opportunities. Infrastructure needs will benefit from fiscal policies. Investments in energy transition, driving growth constantly amongst our corporate clients and financial sponsors in the field of energy, infrastructures, and assets financing. That is true around the world, especially in Asia and the Americas. We'll also benefit from the long-standing polarization between asset and alternative investments and the increase in private credit and private equity. We have a forward capacity to provide products and solutions based on our global positioning in originating structured financing in key sectors on the buy side and experiencing credit risk. Growing needs in managing savings will also call for simpler structured products, offering protection and thematic exposure to tailor-made indexes and relevant CSR content. As innovators, we have built some of the top-selling products in the world. In Europe and also largely in Asia and the Americas, we'll take part in the economic recovery, thanks to our efficient international footprint. We'll support companies in their need to grow or to restructure while offering investors access to all assets that will emerge from the new macroeconomic cycle. We are determined to make the most of these positive trends. In doing so, we'll seek to progressively balance our model, guaranteeing our ability to seize the growth opportunities while reducing concentration risks. We will focus more on large companies gradually and amongst financial institutions, we'll increase our activities with institutional investors, like insurance companies, for example, and with financial sponsors. In terms of business, our additional capital allocation will favor our finance and advisory services, and we'll continue to invest in technology for our transaction banking business. By making the most of our profitable platforms in Asia and America, we'll try to capture the excess growth expected in these regions. We also believe that our reasonable growth ambitions will be helped by two key catalysts, CSR and technology. CSR is a new story. ESG is a new story for some, but not for Société Générale. We have 20 years of leadership, innovation, and actions. We've taken ambitious engagements, and we stick to them. We assume this responsibility considering that all our activities will be natively ESG. In 10 years' time, there'll be no business that is not ESG from the very start. This is very stimulating to us as bankers and citizens. Our ambition is to double our income linked to ESG as of 2025. As for technology, we're thinking of technology to three dimensions: enable business to grow, improve efficiency by reducing cost and increasing quality through automation, and being a leader in potential disruptions. In the final analysis, in the parameters of our macroeconomic scenario, that of a gradual recovery with a normalized cost of risk will obtain a sustainable ROE in excess of 10% in 2023 and in excess of 12% as of 2024. To conclude, our story is simple. A market full of wealth to be exploited, an important and stable customer base to serve, significant growth drivers to seize, lower costs to increase value creation, and a lower risk to protect our profits. Thank you. I will now give the floor to Lorenzo Bini Smaghi to tell us more about corporate governance. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, we now move on to the part of the general meeting devoted to corporate governance. In the universal registration document on pages 63 et al, you have the report on corporate governance. You can read there in detail the board's management report and that of each committee, as well as the report relating to the chairman's activities. The board spent a lot of time in 2020 monitoring the implementation of the strategic plan in the context impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, with its consequences, in particular on the markets in the first half. Given this context, the board ensured a very close follow-up of the bank's activities. It ensured that health risks were under good control, both for employees and for clients, and service providers. The board met 18 times in video conferencing as of the month of March. In accordance with the bylaws, the board of directors devoted a key part of its activities to dealing with strategic guidelines. Two one-day strategic seminars were organized. In addition to risk appetite and the capital trajectory, the board approved guidelines set for network banking in France, KB, ALD Automotive, and on market activities and investment banking. The board of directors also validated the bank's CSR strategy and approved the extra-financial performance statement. Lastly, this is a very important decision, the board sets ambitious targets for 2023 when it comes to diversity in managing bodies. The board of directors devoted at each meeting, time to review remediation, when it comes to compliance, and noted with satisfaction decisions taken by the French National Financial Court, which noted the compliance of the remediation set by the bank when it comes to the fight against corruption. In 2020, the board received representatives of the European Central Bank in their role as banking supervisors. They also reorganized general management on the proposal of Frédéric Oudéa and carried out an assessment of company directors. It also worked on the Nominations Committee and Corporate Governance Committee on succession plans. On page 91, you can find a summary of the evaluation of work carried out by the board, a positive assessment in terms of its composition as well as the quality of its work. The work carried out by the board is fed by the work done by the committees. I'd like to thank the risk committee and the audit and internal control committee for the quality of the work. The risk committee is specifically responsible for supervising activities linked to the United States. We also sought to strengthen, improve training offered to board members in some areas such as accounting and prudential rules, technological topics such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, as well as compliance, in particular, the fight against money laundering. Regarding my personal role, I actively took part in contacts with the regulators and met international shareholders and investors within the framework of the preparation of this general meeting, in particular. In terms of governance, the board took note of the departure of Philippe Heim, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, as well as Séverin Cabannes, who are retiring this year. The board examined the conditions for their departure. Jean-Bernard Lévy will present that to you later on. We'd like to thank them on your behalf, especially Séverin Cabannes, who stayed Deputy VP for more than 10 years. Regarding the composition of the board, 2021 saw several changes. The size of the board went from 14 to 15 members with the election of the board member representing employee shareholders. That is dealt with in resolutions 20 and 21. You have the choice between Hélène Crinquant, 20th resolution, and Sébastien Wetter, 21st resolution. The board, in view of these two very good applicants, did not wish to steer shareholders in their choice. Secondly, the employee shareholders. We saw the renewal of Trinh Huse. Her term was renewed. She has been on the board since 2009 and a member of the compensation committee. Johan Praud was elected, and we will have him with us for three years, and we wish him welcome. We would like to thank David Leroux, who was not a candidate for his renewal, and he has been with us over the past three years on the board. Three directors are submitted to your approval for a renewal. The first is Alexandra Schaapveld. She has been a board member since 2013, chairwoman of the audit committee and internal control. She plays an essential role for the board, and her banking experience is extremely useful. William Connelly, board member since 2017 and Chairman of the Risk Committee since 2020, also plays a key role. His experience in banking and his finance are a significant asset for the board. Lubomira Rochet, board member since 2017, who has brought to the table his expertise in digital strategy, among other things, of course. A member of the executive committee of L'Oréal up until the end of April, and he's just joined the investment fund JAB. Now, Jean-Bernard Lévy, last but not least, after 12 years, will be leaving the board. He's brought his experience as a CEO, as Chairman of the Compensation Committee. He has made palatable the compensation regulations in the area of banking. Today, the board has decided that Jean-Bernard Lévy is going to become a censor up until the General Assembly of 2023. Over and beyond the traditional role of censor, the board wants Jean Bernard Lévy to keep a close eye on how the bank builds its strategy for the energy transition and how it's going to be implemented. I should like to thank Jean Bernard for accepting this new assignment. To find a new board member, and after a selection process that started in 2019 and steered by the nomination committee with the support of a consulting partner, the board is suggesting Mr. Henri Poupart-Lafarge. Like Jean Bernard Lévy, he is president and general director of large industrial French companies or a large French international company, Alstom. Like the other board members, he will be appointed as independent board member. The three candidates, Mr. Poupart-Lafarge, Ms. Crinquant, and Mr. Wetter, will be introducing themselves via a presentation they recorded a few days ago. Dear shareholders, ladies and gentlemen, dear board members, it's a great honor for me to be presenting my application to become board member of Société Générale. My name is Henri Poupart-Lafarge. I'm Chairman and CEO of Alstom Group. I spent most of my career inside that group, in finance and chairing the group in general. Since we bought up Bombardier, we are leaders in green and smart mobility. I am not an expert in the area of banking, but I would like to bring to the board all of my experience as a client of banks and a client of Société Générale in general, especially when I was CFO of Alstom, but also as a director of a large group that operates in five continents and all the big markets. I'll be bringing to the board all of my experience and everything that I've learnt in the field. Dear shareholders of Société Générale, dear board members. My name is Hélène Crinquant. I'm one of the directors of Société Générale Luxembourg, a leader in Luxembourg, and I am certified by the ECB. Today, I would like to become a board member of Société Générale, along with William de Vientjes, my deputy. I will be able to bring my expertise to the table in terms of banking, but a very diversified knowledge, both in France and abroad, and a very good understanding and knowledge of how Société Générale operates. A lot of knowledge in compliance, in governance. I know also about customer expectations and regulator expectations. I'm also very aware of human resources issues, responsibility, social issues, environmental issues, and I will also bring a unique link to AFAG-SG, the only associations that represent present and past employee shareholders since 1987. Since then, this association has always supported the group in difficult times. Over the last few months, I've had some discussions with some of you. They were very fruitful and useful discussions. Thanks very much for that. It has allowed me to strengthen my beliefs. I am a woman, I am a manager, I will rely on a lot of people, and I will be fully committed to developing Société Générale and in building a strategy for the future for Société Générale. Dear shareholders, I am delighted to have this opportunity to talk to you today. 25 years ago, I started out at Société Générale in retail banking in France. After that, I worked in market activities, the general Société Générale, and in audit, and in corporate banking. I'm currently in charge of larger accounts, and I've got a lot of experience that allows me to understand the issues at play in banking. Over the last 25 years, I have managed many a team. I celebrated collective successes. I was pained by the crisis that we went through at Société Générale. This adventure over the last 25 years means that I have a real commitment to Société Générale, and this is why William and Henri and I decided to apply for this position. I want to serve Société Générale and its employees. I want to do it in an independent manner. I want to discuss things over, to consult with all the stakeholders. Société Générale is a large bank with huge franchises. It is robust. It has social and environmental commitments, which I see as a huge opportunity. I believe that Société Générale should remain free, independent, and for me, Société Générale is more than just a company. It is really very close to my heart. The employees voted for us. We came first. I would like you today to validate that choice. Okay, well, thank you very much to all of you. After the vote, the lineup of the board will keep the same gender balance with 42% of women. Mr. Henri Poupart-Lafarge. His arrival is in keeping with the guidelines of the board. Now, after the resolutions, the board will have 11 independent board members out of the 12 that are elected by the general assembly. One board member that represents the employee shareholders, also elected by the general assembly. Two board members elected by employees. Now I'm going to hand over to Jean-Bernard Lévy, chairman of the Remuneration Compensation Committee. Ladies and gentlemen, the shareholders, like every year for the last time, I'm going to be talking about the principles and the compensation policy. Now, this policy is particularly important for regulated individuals. It sets the compensation of board members. These issues need to go through the compensation committee first. In 2020, that committee came together nine times. In keeping with the law, the general assembly needs to approve the compensation policy for 2021 and must also vote for the variable aspect of compensations for 2020. Now, the compensation policy of the group falls under a huge amount of regulation, and the board has made sure that its policy is fully compliant with these regulations. Like each year, the compensation policy is supervised by the ECB and the ACPR, as well as by our internal control teams. These controls have led to the conclusion that we are fully compliant. Let's move on to say on pay ex ante. Its main characteristics remain unchanged compared to 2020. For the board members of Société Générale, their general compensation stands at EUR 1.7 million. It remains the same, although the number of board members has gone up from 12 to 13 with the election of a new board member representing employee shareholders. The chairman and the general director do not receive any compensation as board members. For the president of the board, he receives a fixed compensation that remains the same since 2018, plus his accommodation in Paris. To guarantee the independence in the execution of his term, the chairman receives no variable compensation, no securities, nor any compensation that is tied to the bank's performance. The compensation policy of the general director and the appointed general directors is based on fixed and variable aspects. The fixed compensation of executives remains the same compared to 2020. The variable aspects are based on financial and qualitative objectives. To take into account the new organization that was decided in August 2020, there is now a weighing of financial criteria and group indicators and indicators that have been adapted. For 2021 onwards, there will be for 60% for the group and 40% on the specific scope of either the General Director or the Deputy General Directors. This weighing for the assessment of the qualitative performance has been adapted to be fit for purpose. Over and beyond that, nothing else has been changed. The structure and the characteristic of profit sharing remain the same. Profit sharing is capped at two times fixed compensation. General Directors have a compensation for the cool-off period of six months. They have a severance pay that is only paid out when they are forced to leave the group, and they have an additional pension regime that is tied to performance conditions. Frédéric Oudéa does not enjoy any additional retirement privileges from Société Générale. Now, all of this needs to be approved by the general assembly. The compensation of EUR 1.3 million remains the same since 2014, and variable compensation has dropped by 65% since last year. It was set by taking into account the fact that 50% of the compensation was abandoned, as well as the solidarity efforts made by Société Générale. This program is there to help associations and charities that are in the front line in the pandemic. We are also funding similar initiatives led by governments. They also enjoy profit sharing for 2020 that remains the same compared to last year. Overall, the compensation of Frédéric Oudéa is underneath the average of CEOs in the CAC 40 and European banks. Regarding the deputy general directors, the variable aspects are the same. It has decreased by two-thirds compared to the previous year, there again, taking into account the 50% that I mentioned earlier. Profit sharing on the long term remains the same for Ms. Diony Lebot and Mr. Philippe Heim. The term of Philippe Heim and Séverin Cabannes ended on the 3rd of August and 31st December 2020, neither of them have received any severance pay or any compensation whatsoever. Mr. Séverin Cabannes did not receive long-term profit sharing, he will be retiring at the end of 2021. Philippe Heim, for 2020, has only received a proportional share of his fixed compensation. In terms of equity ratio, in keeping with the PACTE law, the report on compensation of directors contains information on the evolution of compensation of the directors and needs to be compared to the average compensation of employees of the company. You have this here on the graph on the screen. As you can see, the ratio is going down structurally over the last five years. The ratio without the giving up of the 50% should be at 57, but right now, it's only at 48. The ratio compared to average compensation went from 47 in 2019 to 36 in 2020, or 42 if you take into account the 50%. Lastly, the compensation committee ensured the review of compensations for regulated positions subject to the CRD IV Directive. In 2020, we identified 781 risk takers. The average amount of variable compensation for the regulated population, excluding corporate officers, is down by 9% as compared to 2019. The average amount of total compensation, excluding corporate officers and members of the board, is down in 2020 by 6%. Let me draw your attention to the fact that these amounts are different from those that were submitted to your consultative vote in Resolution 15 bearing on amounts paid out in 2020 and not attributed amounts paid out in 2020. That does not accurately reflect the year's performance, given the important portion of deferred variable compensation. I would like to conclude without expressing my thanks to my colleagues from the board, general management, and of course, to all shareholders for their trust, since today, we're coming to the end of my third term as a board member. It's been 12 years, since 2009, that I've been a member of the board. Result, my function as Chairman of the Compensation Committee will be taken over by Jérôme Contamine. The board asked me to accompany it for two years as mentor, especially to help it when it comes to a climate strategy. It is with pleasure and acknowledgment that I accepted this mission. I thank you for your attention. Thank you, Jean-Bernard Lévy, for that last presentation. You said, next year, we will have Jérôme Contamine, who was appointed as Chairman of the Compensation Committee. We have a short video on the group solidarity initiatives in connection with the COVID crisis. Thank you. Let us now move to a discussion. I turn to Patrick Suet for your questions. You received seven written questions, Patrick. Yes, Mr. Chair. There were seven written questions from individual shareholders, Mr. Debras, Delpech, DeYoung, Legros, and Leroy, and from two associations, the Forum for Responsible Investments and the Friends of the Earth. All answers are available on the general meetings website. Essential elements in the replies were restated in the strategic presentations given. Regarding ESG more particularly, although many responses can be found in the integrated report placed online on the Société Générale website today, we decided to go a little bit further and to answer the Friends of the Earth regarding the coal and hydrocarbon policy in the group. Diony Lebot will tell us more about that. Well, we do have a policy when it comes to hydrocarbons that's proactive with our clients and determined with respect to our portfolio alignment in April 2021, along with our mission statement and our leadership in the energy transition. As a founding member, we joined the Net-Zero Banking Alliance. We are convinced of the driving of this key role to be played by banks and the power of coalitions to have a greater impact and to make significant progress. By joining the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, Société Générale pledges to proactively guide its financing portfolio aligned to roadmaps targeted for carbon neutrality by 2050, together with restriction of global warming by 1.5 degrees by the year 2100. Société Générale has long been committed to gradually align all of its portfolios in tune with the Paris Agreement. With this new commitment, the bank will accelerate its efforts. We are committed to handle the portfolios that emit the most as a matter of priority and to define alignment objectives for 2030. It has already started to set precise goals for aligning all its portfolios by prioritizing the lowest carbon sectors. Since 2011, the group has been carrying out a progressive policy of moving away from coal, a zero reduction goal to exposure to carbon with fossil fuels by 2030 for companies holding coal assets in the EU and in the OECD and 2040 elsewhere. Société Générale was one of the first banks in the world to announce a concrete, short-term, measurable goal of reducing its portfolio linked to mining oil and gas, a decline of 10% before 2025. The group will increase its objectives to reflect its new commitment in view of this Net-Zero alliance. At the same time, Société Générale plans to play a key role in the economic transition. At the end of the first quarter 2021, Société Générale reached 80% of its goal of contributing to raise EUR 120 billion from 2019 to 2023. Société Générale is a pioneer and leader in the sector of renewable energies. We are number one in the world in advisory and number two in the world in financing renewable energies. I will now give the floor to Patrick Suet for questions over the internet. Yes, thank you, Giovanni Cagnoli. As the chairman said at the start, you can put your questions over the internet. This session is now closed. We received several questions. First of all, two questions for Frédéric Oudéa. I will read them out to make it easier. The first from Mr. François Plassat, I'll read it out in extenso. You took over 10 years to absorb the different crises and major difficulties that were internal. Excessive risk-taking, weighing on disappointing results over the years, goals that were not met, and this has been negative for the group's image. Don't you think it would have been better to take more radical decisions much more earlier so as to have more dynamic results and to get rid of the difficulties facing the group over this long period? For the time being, you have only been reacting to market pressures and your strategy. Can it be credible over the long term? Let me read the second question straight away from the Forum for Responsible Investments. How do you manage at group level the social impacts linked to the massive development of working from home since the start of the pandemic, especially when it comes to managing psychosocial risks and your participation expenses, satisfaction surveys for consumers, and the choice of working from home by employees and so on? This is how the question is drafted. Thank you, Patrick. The question from Mr. Plassat. Over the past 10 years, I believe that we have seen many external crises, the financial crisis in 2008, the euro crisis. This is an exceptional pandemic. All throughout the past 10 years, I have carried out a deep-seated transformation of the group. Over the past 10 years, banks have disappeared. Other banks were amongst the biggest in the world, and they became domestic retail banks. We can wonder about the long-term future, given the disruptions linked to digital technology. What we achieved was to preserve expertise and to serve clients, all based on customer simplicity, transforming activities that were sometimes transactional in the way they were managed to move towards activities that were focused on added value. The way we quickly were able to adapt to this pandemic reflects these stronger initiatives. What we're able to do, and this is good for the future, and very few banks have been able to do this, is the fact of building new alternative business models. I'm thinking of Boursorama. In 2013, 2014, it was 300,000 customers. Today, Boursorama, 2.8 million clients, it'll be 4.5 soon. It will be one of the big banks in France, in the world of tomorrow, and organic growth that is patient, that we're able to nourish. I could take mobility, too. At ALD in 2013, probably about the same, 400,000 vehicles. Now over 1.3 million. In the mobility sector, which we know will be transformed because the use of cars is changing. Throughout these crises, we're able, and this is where in banking, to be disruptive, accepting to create businesses starting from scratch, but with strong potential. When I take stock of Société Générale today, the franchises were never as strong. Never was our balance sheet as robust. Our capital, our liquidity, and risk management has turned out to be quite good. Yes, like all players in this sector, we in 2020, saw market dislocation, and it is true we didn't consider, the cancellation of dividend announced in our investment products. You may have so seen at the start of the year, we haven't seen any significant projects that would impact the major banks. We must be humble. Our track record is great. I must also mention remediation and compliance because in 2021, I hope it will be the year when we can conclude a certain number of remediations on compliance cases that date back 10 or 15 years ago, that called for a lot of effort on our part. You're right though, because now we must deliver and be disciplined with all the projects we presented to you throughout this meeting. That, of course, are extremely promising in terms of value creation and would enable Société Générale to be sustainably profitable in an environment that remains complicated for European banks as we know. Let me move on to the second question that is totally unrelated, working from home and employee management. It is true, as you know, that working from home around the world, it was almost imposed. When I say around the world, I'm speaking about developed countries or certain places like India. We have some 10,000 colleagues working from home given the pandemic. In the past, it is only in Africa, given the existing IT infrastructure, is more complicated to switch to working from home. Good news, if I may say so, is that the bank was able to continue to work very quickly in this new modus operandi, serving customers and managing this exceptional crisis. In the crisis, of course, we had to manage working from home that was imposed. It is true that this crisis, together with all the challenges around the pandemic weighing on people, created a certain distance from work. We paid great attention to that. First of all, we carried out regular surveys with our colleagues over what we call pulse surveys, global surveys, to find out how things were working. A lot of communication, training, and support as regard psycho, medical, social risks to serve our colleagues. I believe that we were a responsible bank, and all of our employees noted that despite all the constraints. It is true that we're now entering a new phase, or I hope so, thanks to vaccination and the fact that we'll be able to leave the pandemic behind us. We plan to shift to a different way of working. We thought about new ways of working together with employees. Over 800 employees took part in different working groups, along with young employees who took part in these think tanks. In many entities, in more than 20 countries, in France in particular, we now have outlooks for organized working from home in something that is desired, that will be structured. We signed an agreement with our trade unions, seeking to maintain, nevertheless, a regular presence on-site. We think that is important. Our employees also want to return to the premises. That is part of a social contract, a sense of belonging. We are convinced that we can strike the right balance without losing in terms of productivity and giving the image of being an attractive employer for young employees in particular, who probably think differently when it comes to their relationships with companies. We hope in a world of competition for talents, we hope that we'll be an attractive employer. I'll now give the floor to Sébastien. I think Patrick Suet, there's a question on the networks in France. Yes, I can read it out. A question from Mr. Jean-Pierre Limousin from the Shareholders' Consultative Committee. How will you support your clients in coming closer to Crédit du Nord and Société Générale networks to benefit from the best services? Thank you, Patrick. Clients are at the heart of this project. It's a merger plan intended to improve our profitability in retail banking. It is also a project that is basically intended to improve our offer for Société Générale and Crédit du Nord clients. For Crédit du Nord clients, they will have access to a digital quality, a greater offer of digital services than what they have today. As Crédit du Nord clients, as I said before, they had access to 650 branches. In 2023, 1,500 branches throughout France. Corporate clients at Crédit du Nord tomorrow will have access to an offer of services that will be more comprehensive and with the financial clout of Société Générale. Société Générale clients, tomorrow with this merger in the model we are building, will basically still have quality of digital services that will be even better. Because we will focus our investments on a single information system, but they'll have more as Société Générale clients, because we'll adapt the model using the strengths of Crédit du Nord that we will deploy for all clients. I spoke about short decision-making circuits, and that's fundamental for Société Générale and Crédit du Nord clients. If they have questions or needs, they want to have quick answers. To give quick answers, you need an organization that allows you to take decisions quickly, and that is what we want to build with this merger plan. The second example, we have 400,000 professional clients, and that is a strength at both banks. At Crédit du Nord today, there is a relational model for professionals that's different. Each time for a professional client, we have one advisor who can handle all their needs for professional clients, be it professional needs or in their private life. One contact point, 360 degrees in terms of servicing. That model allows us to stand out in the French market, that's the model we'll adopt for all our professional customers, including professional clients at Société Générale, who with this merger, will have not less quality but more quality of service. On top of the model, in your question, Mr. Luman, you have concrete support at the time of the merger. It's not just straight away. It's in 2023 that this merger will take place concretely. Clearly, we'll have to support clients of Crédit du Nord in particular, because, for example, they will have to change their banking information, their banking details. We can do that. We have experience. We've already done so. Crédit du Nord did so when the Société Marseillaise de Crédit was acquired. Of course, that will call for a lot of preparation. We're getting ready for that. It means you must be close to our clients. You must have specific supporting mechanisms guaranteeing the stability of the customer's contacts, including during the merger, to help them, be close to them, and to be very much neutral in this merger for our Crédit du Nord clients. That is our goal, and it is also our experience within the Crédit du Nord Group. That's it. This is a merger with all the advantages of a merger in terms of synergy, it goes further than that. It's a commercial project to strengthen value, once again, it will impact all clients of Société Générale and Crédit du Nord. [Foreign language] Thank you very much. Thank you, Sébastien. Just remind you that all the answers will be available on the Société Générale website. We're now going to move on to the resolutions, and I'm going to hand over to Patrick. Yes, I'm just going to remind you what the resolutions are all about. The full wording of the resolutions can be found in the convening notice. You can either vote by mail, online, or by proxy. The deadline for internet votes were 17th May 2021, 3:00 P.M., and by mail, 16th of May. For the proxy votes, vote is on the notice, in the convening notice. The quorum is of 58.556%. In other words, 482,205,384 shares that are present or represented out of a total of 835,480,705. First resolution, approval of the annual consolidated accounts for the 2020 financial year. The resolution is approved at 99.54%. 2nd resolution, approval of the annual accounts for the 2020 financial year. It was approved by 99.53%. 3rd resolution, allocation of 2020 income, setting of the dividends of EUR 0.55 per share. That resolution was adopted by 98.65%. 4th resolution, approval of the statutory auditor's report on the related party agreements referred to in Article L22-5. The resolution was adopted at 99.69%. 5th resolution, approval of the compensation policy of the Chairman of the Board of Directors. That resolution was adopted at 94.95%. Resolution number 6, approval of the compensation policy of the Chief Executive Officer and the Deputy Chief Executive Officers. Mr. Carrez did talk about it earlier. That was adopted by 96.55%. Resolution number 7, approval of the compensation policy of directors. The resolution is adopted at 96.6%. Resolution number 8, approval of the information relating to the compensation of each corporate officer. Jean-Bernard Lévy talked about this earlier. That is approved 97.96%. Resolution number nine. That's for the ex-post side of things. Approval of the components composing the total remuneration and benefits of any kind paid during or rewarded Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, adopted 94.79%. Resolution number 10, approval of the components composing the total remuneration and benefits to Frédéric Oudéa, adopted by 85.05% of you. Still approval of the remuneration of Philippe Aymerich, approved 85.40% of votes. Resolution number 12, it's the compensation for Séverin Cabannes, adopted 85.31%. Resolution number 13. Here it's the remuneration Philippe Heim, approved 85.17%. Resolution number 14. That's for the compensation ex post of Diony Lebot, 85.38%, approved. Resolution number 15, advisory opinion on compensation paid in 2020 to regulated persons in 2020, 781 people are covered. That is adopted at 98.38%. Resolution number 16, renewal of Ms. Alexandra Schaapveld. That resolution is approved 98.23%. 17th resolution, number 16, renewal of Mr. William Connelly's mandate as director, approved 98.31%. 18th resolution, renewal of Ms. Lubomira Rochet as director, adopted with 98.48% of the votes. Resolution number 19, appointment of Henri Poupart-Lafarge as director. That's approved at 98.74%. Resolution 20 and 21 are going to be presented together, since only the resolution that will receive the most votes will be adopted between Ms. Hélène Crinquant and Mr. Sébastien Wetter. Resolution 21 is adopted, with 83% of votes. For Mr. Sébastien Wetter. 22nd resolution, authorization granted to the board of directors to purchase ordinary shares of the company up to a limit of 5% of the share capital. That's approved with 98.49%. 23rd resolution, powers to perform formalities. That's approved at 99.71%. Thank you very much, Patrick Suet. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for showing your trust vis-à-vis what the board is doing. We hope that we can see you on the 17th of May 2022. We hope that we will be all at La Grande Arche. The question didn't come up, I'm going to give you the answer nonetheless. Thank you very much and have a pleasant evening.