Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome, dear shareholders, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much for taking up our invitation to this General Assembly. 2018 was a very intense year. We have a lot of achievements for our group, very challenging, and with some mixed results. In a complicated environment, we rolled out our new strategic plan, Transform to Grow, and we have made progress on several fronts with great determination. Our growth initiatives, the refocusing of our activities, the rooting of our culture of responsibility, our optimization actions, and our deep transformation, especially in the area of digital, are starting to bear fruit. We have also put to one side, or behind us rather, uncertainties related to litigations and the past. We have also made progress in integrating CSR issues in our core activities.
I would like to thank the commitment of all the teams that allowed us to make all of these steps in the right direction. We have completely changed environment since mid-2018. We have a lot of tensions on the markets at the end of the year. A lot of indicators are preempting a slowing down of growth in 2019, and especially in 2020. In these less favorable conditions for the whole European banking sector, as well as for us, we expect a sustainable slowing down of some market activities and low rates lingering on for longer than we had anticipated. On top of this, there are regulatory changes, capital requirements that are higher, and political outlooks that are also quite complicated, uncertainty in the Eurozone, and geopolitical tensions, and a business environment outside of Europe that is less favorable.
Diony Lebot will be commenting on the 2018 results and those of the first quarter of 2019. Then Frédéric Oudéa will tell you about the environment and the strategy of the bank as it was recalibrated at the beginning of the year. I'll be telling you about the activity of the Board of Directors, and Jean-Bernard Lévy, Chairman of the Compensation Committee, will present the resolutions that have to do with compensation that you will have to vote on. By my side is Frédéric Oudéa, Diony Lebot, in charge of risk, finance, and compliance. Philippe Aymerich, in charge of retail banking in France and in charge of the innovation technologies and IT departments. Séverin Cabannes, who's overseeing global banking and investor solutions, and Philippe Heim, who is in charge of international retail banking, financial, and insurance services.
As you know, Frédéric Oudéa's mandate will be submitted to your vote. If his mandate is renewed, as we hope it is, the Deputy General Directors and the Director General's mandates will also be renewed and will run until 2023. This Ordinary General Assembly is now open. We've gone through all the legal formalities. The quorum is of 54.43%, or in other words, 431,500,177 shares. In other words, a figure in excess of the necessary quorum for an Ordinary General Assembly. We can therefore proceed. We'll give you the quorum once again just before we vote on the resolutions. Let's move on to the bureau of our General Assembly. We have two tellers, two shareholders who are among us, who hold, in their own name or via proxy, enough voting rights.
We have Olivier Dransart from the Fonds commun de placement des salariés Société Générale, and Mr. Stéphane Tailliez, representing Amundi, and Olivier Dransart, who is the chairman of the supervisory board. Please stand up, gentlemen. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. As secretary of the general assembly, I suggest Mr. Patrick Suet, who is also secretary of the board of directors. The statutory auditors received registered letters in keeping with rules and regulations. They are Mr. Micha Missakian, representing Ernst & Young. Mr. Jean-Marc Mickeler, who will be representing Deloitte & Associés, and Mr. Mickeler being abroad, he has entrusted Madame Monin to represent him. All the necessary documents are available for the members of the bureau and the participants.
You have up here on the screen all the documents that have been made available to you and who were also published online and available at Société Générale administrative headquarters. To better invest your expectations, we have carried out a consultation. We covered 1,200 shareholders. In our presentations, we will strive to answer your questions. I would also like to thank the members of the board of directors for being with us today. For any technical or commercial question, we have organized a customer relationship desk out in the entrance hall. As usual, our discussions will be broadcast live on the internet, but no footage of the audience or of individual members will be broadcast. As usual, we will use electronic voting for resolutions.
Very much like last year, we've decided to thank you for your loyalty with a present that you will receive on your way out. Now, before I hand over the floor to Diony Lebot, I would like to pay tribute to a man who left us at the beginning of 2018, Marc Viénot, who was Director General from 1986. He organized the privatization of Société Générale and gave the bank an international reach. He also drew up the first corporate code that many French companies still refer to currently. Now let's move on. I'm going to hand over the floor to Diony Lebot for the financial results of 2018 and the first quarter of 2019.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, I'm now going to talk you through the results of your company for 2018. In a very difficult environment for some of our activities, the group has relentlessly continued with its transformation and delivered solid results thanks to a good commercial dynamic of its métier. I'll conclude this presentation by going back to the 2019 Q1 results that show that we are very much in keeping with the dynamics of 2018. First of all, 2018 was marked by the closing of our litigations with American authorities and a payout of $2.7 billion that were covered by provisions that we had previously booked. Therefore, it had no impact on our books.
No other litigations are to be expected in years to come, but we remain very careful in this particular area, and we will continue to work on managing risk by sharing best compliance practices and deploying our conduct and culture program. The underlying NBI of the group has increased by 0.6% in 2018 versus 2017, which testifies to the good performance of our métier. The costs are up by 2%, because we have continued to invest in the transformation of retail banking in France, and we have also supported the development of retail banking abroad. Besides, we have also continued in our cost control activities for global banking. 2018 was also marked by a cost of risk very low at 21 basis points. The net result for the group is stable versus 2017 at EUR 4.5 billion, and the net published result is significantly higher with a 37.7% increase.
Finally, profitability of our equity is also on the up and up compared to 2017 and stands at 9.7%, or 8.8% for the published results. Now let's talk about growth initiatives in France that are bearing their fruits. Our online banking offer, Boursorama, has drawn in more clients, 1.7 million at the end of 2018. We are still leaders of online banking in France. We are going to continue our activities for high net worth clients and private banking. Our outstanding loans for consumption in France increased by 8% compared to 2017, and our professional and corporate activities have developed very well over 2018. Like most of our European peers in retail banking in the Eurozone, the low, sometimes even negative interest rates, has continued to weigh down on our income. Our income has therefore gone down 1.8% compared to 2018 and stands at EUR 7.8 billion.
Management costs have also increased, which testifies to the investments made to transform the group. Now let's move on to international retail banking and financial services. For métiers and for different regions in general, growth has been quite strong throughout 2018. For international retail banking, our main strongholds, Western Europe, Czech Republic, Romania, Russia, and Africa, were able to leverage dynamic macroeconomic environments. In these environments, our outstanding elements are plus 6% on the like-for-like basis. For financial services, the commercial dynamic was also very strong with insurance, life insurance, in spite of a difficult environment. In these circumstances, retail banking income and international financial services have gone up by 5.1% and 6.6% on a like-for-like basis. The operational lever is also important, with an increase of management cost by 4.7% on the like-for-like basis.
Finally, for the third métier of the group, global banking, dynamics were not so encouraging, with incomes that have gone down by 3.6%, reaching EUR 8.8 billion. For financing and advising, we have delivered very good performance with a 7% increase in income, and for our market activities, market conditions were very difficult and have weighed down on client demand and on our income. Management costs have increased by 1.7% compared to 2017 because we have invested in growth for banking and transaction and financing activities and advising, whilst remaining very disciplined on costs overall. In 2018, the environment was very different to what we had expected at the end of 2017. During the second half of 2018, we realized that the outlook for growth was not that favorable for next years. We were able to have more clarity on the regulatory environment and on the new constraints.
This is why we decided to modify our interest rate and set assumptions in the Eurozone. For example, we reduced the weighted outstanding risks by EUR 10 billion, we also implemented an additional cost reduction plan of EUR 500 million. We are aiming for a profitability of equity between 9%-10% by the end of 2020. I suggest that we take a look on the financial robustness of the group and value creation for shareholders. As you can see, the equity of the group have increased in 2018 by more than 10% compared to 2014 and reached EUR 61 billion at the end of 2018. We are fully in line with all the regulations with a solvency ratio CET1 at 11.2% at the end of 2018, a ratio that increased significantly compared to the first quarter when it stood at 11.7%.
With 22.9%, the TLAC is above the regulatory threshold for 2019 and for 2022. We will be submitting to your vote the payout ratio and the dividend policy for 2019. For 2018, we suggest that you vote for a payment of the dividends in shares. Quick words on the results of your group for Q1 2018. Métier income on the increase by 0.3% thanks to international retail banking activities, financial services for companies, and the funding and advising for global banking and investor solutions. Retail banking in France is resilient, and the market activity income, although they are lower than for Q1 2018, have bounced back compared to the fourth quarter of 2018. As regards cost now, the different métier dynamics that I mentioned for 2018 will continue for this quarter, or rather continued for the previous quarter.
The commercial risk cost is still quite low at 21 basis points. The net share results of the group is at EUR 1 billion, and profitability on tangible equity stands at 8.4%. Finally, our solvency ratio has increased by 55 basis points and stands at 11.7%. We are determined in reaching our target CET1 of 12% as soon as possible. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Diony. I'll be turning the floor over to our statutory auditors. First of all, Mr. Missakian, please come up on stage.
Good afternoon. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders. I would first of all like to sum up our reports on the consolidated financial statements you can find between pages 50 and 54 of your brochure, as well as the annual financial statements between 54 and 58. The goal is for us to have reasonable assurance as regards the financial statements and to assure that they are free from material misstatement. We certify that the consolidated financial statements and annual financial statements that were put forth by your board of directors. We have drawn your attention to one of the annexes, which shows the first application of IFRS 9 on financial instruments. We, for the past two years, have been pointing out the key points in our audit involving any significant risks that, in our professional judgment, have been the most important for this audit.
For the consolidated financial statements, the key points involve the provisions for disputes, the deferred tax assets in France and the U.S., the assessment of complex financial instruments, the IT risks for derivatives, as well as structured issuances, and the first applications of IFRS 9. As regards the management report, we do not have any comments to make with regards to the consolidated financial statements. We have the same comments as for the consolidated financial statements as regards the effects in terms of the changes in the assessment of depreciations for a credit for the client. We do not have any observations to make as provided for by law, in particular as regards the report on governance and on management, with the exception of a purely technical observation we have that are current in financial institutions as regards exclusion of banks from the scope involving the payment periods.
Thank you very much. I'd like to ask Ms. Monin to come on stage.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders. I will now be presenting our special report on the related party agreements that you have on page 58 of the brochure that was sent to you. We are communicating on the characteristics of related party agreements and commitments that we carried out, that we discovered during our audit. We will not be speaking about their usefulness or looking for an existence of any other agreements or commitments. First of all, we analyzed related party agreements that were submitted to the approval of the shareholders meeting that was submitted to the prior approval of your board of directors for the financial year. They involve non-compete clauses, involve severance benefits for Mr. Philippe Heim and Ms. Diony Lebot. For these agreements and commitments that were authorized by your board of directors on May 3rd, 2018, which will be with effect from 14th May, 2018.
They wanted to have the same benefits that were given to the Deputy Chief Executive Officers since 2017. We also looked at the following commitments and agreements involving the previous year and that were previously approved by the Board of Directors on February 6th, 2019. With Mr. Philippe Aymerich, Philippe Heim, Séverin Cabannes, and Diony Lebot, Deputy Chief Executive Officers, and Mr. Frédéric Oudéa, Chief Executive Officer. The non-compete clauses authorized by your Board of Directors as of May 3rd, 2018, for Mr. Philippe Aymerich, Philippe Heim, and Diony Lebot, as well as for Mr. Frédéric Oudéa and Séverin Cabannes, have been modified and authorized by the Board of Directors on February 6th, 2018. The changes that took place were aimed at integrating changes in the Medef code and also for the severance benefits for Philippe Heim, Frédéric Oudéa, Ms. Diony Lebot, to make them more demanding.
These commitments will be modified after the Board of Directors on May 21st, which will be held after the shareholders meeting. With Mr. Philippe-Aymerich, Philippe Heim, Séverin Cabannes, and Ms. Diony Lebot, the Deputy Chief Executive Officers, the additional pension benefits as well as the defined benefit payments for the members of the Board of Directors and the Chief Deputy Executive Officers were modified by the Board of Directors on February 6th, 2018. You have the results detailed in our report. The goal will have expenses for the company that will be reduced for the additional pension commitments.
As a reminder, and as detailed in our report. When we look at the related party agreements, commitments that already have been approved and that were applied over the previous financial years involves non-compete clauses, the termination benefits for Mr. Sanchez Incera and Mr. Valet after they have left the company, and that the related party agreements and commitments over the past financial years involving the termination benefits and non-compete phase for Mr. Oudéa, Mr. Cabannes, and also for Mr. Cabannes as regards the pension benefits. Thank you very much.
[Foreign language]
Thank you very much. I will turn the floor over to Frédéric Oudéa, who is the Chief Executive Officer, who will be presenting the strategy of the group that was approved by the Board of Directors.
Ladies and gentlemen, hello. It is a pleasure for me to see you here once again this year. It is an opportunity for us to take stock and of course, to answer any questions you have about the group strategy, where we are going, the share price, and also the specific case involving retail banking in France, how we can ensure the best service. Of course, this annual meeting is particularly important for me because as you just heard from the chairman, you will be able to speak about the renewal of my term as Board member. I would like to take stock of 2018, but go beyond that.
I would like to begin with what Diony had mentioned. We have been able to put financial uncertainty behind us that was related to the three disputes that involved us with the American authorities in particular. Remember last year, we still had that question. I believe it is the first achievement of 2018. The first lesson we can learn, of course, is ethics, responsibility, how demanding they are, and how they should guide us in our banking activities throughout the world. In a world that is complex, with regulations that are growing. As you know, these disputes come from the past, and it takes more time to address them rather than credit risks that we took at the beginning of the crisis that is behind us now. These disputes took time.
The processes are long, and this was during a period in the past when at times, sometimes there was tension and perhaps a culture of looking at the short term that did not enable us to protect the bank. That is behind us now. When I say it is behind us, I am being quite humble and vigilant. As Diony said, risks persist, and as we have seen in the Baltic States and the Scandinavian banks recently, these risks are continuing to exist. I believe that for many years, we have made a considerable effort in order to bolster our oversight processes. We are in a process of 3 years during which we are bolstering our oversight, also with the supervision of authorities, particularly the U.S., but also France, so that we can ensure that we are in line with the best standards in our industry.
As regards oversight, we also have our culture. In all of our businesses through a project I myself am steering, we are disseminating a shared culture, shared conduct. I wanted to start with that because I felt that this was fundamental in terms of the success of our bank in the future. Beyond these issues, looking at how we can remedy the situation, I would like to turn to what Société Générale is, and I would like to give you an overview of who we are. Société Générale, as reminded, is almost 150,000 people in the world, in 67 countries, serving over 31 million clients. This is a diversified model that involves a variety of business areas. On this slide, you can see the breakdown of our income. You can see the heart is in Europe and France, of course, nearly 70% of our earnings.
We also can see that we have different geographic plans in Eastern, Central Europe, Russia, and Africa. There are very few European banks that are well-positioned as we are in these geographic areas. We also have projections in the U.S. as well as in Asia involving our retail global banking activities. The strength of this group, what makes it relevant, is the fact that although our business plans are very different, we have customers in common, and we ensure that we have banking services for these customers in different geographic areas, in different areas. That is what enables us to have greater added value than banks that are being one single geographic area or one single business area. That is how we can make a difference in a very long-term model that I think helps set Société Générale apart.
If we were to look at what we've done over the past 10 years for each one of our business area, here I'd like to answer the question involving France, looking at retail banks. You know that we have Société Générale, Crédit du Nord, and Boursorama. We are adapting our banking activities. This is because your needs, your expectations of our customers are shifting with the advent of new technologies. You can call them digital technologies. This in-depth adaptation began to pick up speed in 2015. It is a project that will take several years, and I think I can tell you that 2028 has once again been a year of success. This is a considerable project in terms of its scope. It involves all of the organizations. Right now, we are specializing our sales force by category of customer.
It involves all of our service distribution processes, all of our teams, and all of our associates. I would like to pay tribute today, once again, to the tens of thousands of employees we have out in the field who are continuing to serve you, and at the same time, are part of these in-depth changes. Looking at our plan to turn our activities around, we can see that this is a substantial project that I feel is essential. It is essential so that we can meet your needs. I would like to emphasize the fact that we are carrying this out responsibly at Société Générale. There's one priority, that also involves our shareholders, is our fundamental responsibility. We talk about corporate responsibility, that involves providing guidance to all of our employees in these in-depth transformations.
We are not the only one, the banking sector, not the only one impacted by these in-depth changes. Doing so ahead of time, not wanting to wait too long, so that our employees will not end up at a dead end. We are making sure that these are transformations that we are carrying out while investing resources, providing guidance, finding a solution for each and every one of our employees. Three-quarters of our employees, at some point, will be changing their activities, and we are working with our unions so that we can come up with an agreement on employment that was signed by all of our partners. Of course, that is one fundamental area that we are working at. The second pillar that we have, you saw that we moved to the geographic areas, it is that we have the global retail banking.
We have that in Russia, and also in Africa, Central and Eastern Europe. It is a profitable driving force in our group today. Honestly, in this room, I don't know who 5 years ago would've thought that that part of our bank would be growing, would have profitable growth. The contribution of these businesses, as we have just heard, involves EUR 2 billion, whereas before, it had been less than EUR 500 million. Just showing you the results of a strategy that is long-term, showing that we are working in investment banking. We have investment drivers, we are confident in terms of the prospect for growth in this part of the group. We have the third pillar that we have. We have our global banking and investor solutions.
I believe that we have fundamentally been able to change our business model above and beyond what I've said about how we are modifying our oversight. We have seen that sometimes we place emphasis on a transaction, one product, and then another. Now we have a situation in which we are looking at our strategic customers who have over the long term, working on a relationship in various geographic areas, in different business areas. You will see these transformations are not over yet. Of course, we'll continue to improve them to improve profitability, but we have begun this work. Above and beyond these key areas, there is another area I would like to underscore that is fundamental for the future. It is that we have never forgotten this with all of these different projects we are carrying out.
We have always tried to keep our entrepreneurial spirit, our pioneering spirit, enabling us year-over-year to be able to set up business models that provide growth, new activities that deliver growth. I'll give you three examples on this slide, and they're just a few examples. If we look at insurance, which is at the very heart of our model as a banker and insurer, this is a model that is in synergy with our retail banking activities in France, abroad, as well as our specialized services. You can see here, we've been able to ensure that this growth of 13% between 2016 and 2018. Let's look at Boursorama now. The second example, Boursorama, we had over 400,000 employees in 2012, we decided that we would have a long-term growth strategy, what would become the new banking model.
Boursorama today is the uncontested leader in online banking in France. 1.8 million customers today. We will have 2 million by the end of this year, we have announced a goal of over 3 million customers in 2021. Boursorama's model involves a high level of quality of service, positioning. That means we are the least expensive online bank in France, we have particularly high operational efficiencies. The 1.8 million customers being serviced by a limited number of employees. If we look here, our last example, ALD. If we look at our vehicle fleets, in 2014, 1 million. Now we have 1.7 million cars being managed. Of course, we can see that this involves corporate fleets. Our customers are fleets that provide business cars to the employees that we did today.
We can see it is also developing because we have new ways of using vehicles. We will have fewer owners of vehicles, more leasing of vehicles, and once again, we will soon have driverless cars. To a certain extent, ALD managing vehicles, the goal is to be one of the leaders in mobility in the future. That is how year-on-year, over the past few years, we've been able to ensure that its activities have been able to grow. Genuine drivers for growth and profitability. Above and beyond this ability to be able to create new activities, I would also like to speak about our capacity for innovation, which is fundamental for the future.
This capacity for innovation, which is exemplified by the fact that we have been able to stand out in our business lines. We have been able, in particular, to spread the use of digital technologies. If you are a customer of Société Générale, you have an application you can use that is continuing to have new features added to it, one of the best in the market. There are more of you carrying out simple transactions, wire transfers, for example, and doing so with a mobile app. This is an example from retail banking and many others. If we look at investment banking, for example, platforms that we provide for simple transactions without any people needing to be involved. It's online. We can also have high added-value banking services that we provide for more complex transactions, so continuing to provide advisory and financing services.
Above and beyond this, I'd like to assure you that we, of course, are in contact with the outside world in terms of these innovations, in terms with startups. We are working with a plethora of startups. We are working on helping to bolster their capital. We are purchasing some. [L'Agrégateur], the leader in what was called account aggregation. On the same application, you could see all of your banking account balances. We have just purchased a startup called Treezor, which provides services to these new banks that are developing. You can see that thanks to these startups, we are also starting to create new activities. We also have an entrepreneurial program where we are going to tell our employees that if you also have an idea, if you want to create a startup, we will give you the resources to do so.
This program appears to be one of the largest ones in place of its kind in the world. We've been able to select 30 startups that will continue, and we hope that they will be able to create new activities for all of our business lines. Of course, this transformation is not yet over. We are aware of this, but we will continue to be picking up speed in areas such as artificial intelligence, data management, and of course, the scaling up of these projects. I want to reiterate my conviction that over the past two years, it has not always been easy. We have had difficulties to overcome. In parallel, as I said, we are overcoming this, but we have always had a long-term view, trying to create a solid, robust banking model.
We have quality banking services and able to continue to allow us to develop over the years to come. I'd like to conclude, of course, the creation of value, the question that you had about the share price. First of all, let's take a look at the net assets and the tangible assets per share. Looking at the intrinsic value, looking at the amount of capital that we have, you've seen over the past 10 years that it has continued to grow. I think it's also a very important point, we have been quite prudent with your money. We have not asked our shareholders for money since 2009. Just as a comparison, if we look at other banks such as Deutsche Bank, UniCredit, they looked for funding of EUR 27 million from their shareholders.
When we look at the overall return for shareholders on this curve, it's Bloomberg that produced these figures. You can see that the overall return for Société Générale in red and for all European banks in blue, Euro Stoxx. Over the past 10 years, we have performed better than the average of European banks, in particular the past three to four years. As you can see, we have created value 10% when the sector destroyed value. That also illustrates the difficulties we have in the European banking sector as a whole.
In spite of this, we mustn't forget that the beginning of the year was quite tough. Since the beginning of the year, the share price of Société Générale has gone down. The market has doubts in light of the communication that came out at the beginning of the year, that is attributable to the capital situation and the restoration of the investment and finance activity. First of all, let's go back to the European banking sector. Currently, it is a sector that is not very attractive for investors because Europe, from a political point of view, is quite uncertain. You've all heard, of course, about Brexit. We'll know a bit more about this in a few months. There's a lot of political uncertainty. Lorenzo said it earlier, there was a big change at mid 2018.
At the end of 2017, everybody was very happy with growth and dynamic. Mid 2018, there was a big change, growth started to slow down, a low interest rate environment for a much longer period of time than expected. For retail banking, that's particularly bad. Finally, we are currently building the European Banking Union and the European markets, neither of these projects are completed, they might never be completed. Right now, this is why this sector is not attracting a lot of investors. It's a sector that we all operate in, all European banks, the message that we got across might have created some levels of doubt. Let's talk about the level of capital. Let's talk about the Core Tier 1.
We finished 2018 at a lower level than anticipated, and the markets wondered whether Société Générale would be able to pay out its dividend. In light of that situation, is Société Générale going to have to raise funds on the markets? From that point of view, with the first quarter at 11.7%, so just 0.3% shy of our target of 12%, is a first step in the right direction. We need to continue to testify to show that we can progress in that direction. That figure of 11.7% takes into account the dividend payment option. We have a payout ratio of 50% of our net result, with a floor of EUR 2.20. This year, the council will be submitted to your approval the option of a dividend payment, or a payment in shares, rather, so that we can reach that 12% share as soon as possible.
That's what investors want first and foremost. Besides, we're also working on our risk-weighted assets, and we've reduced the capital that is allocated to market activities. We are going to continue to refocus the group. At the end of 2018, we said that we wanted to dispose of assets and activities that did not have the critical mass to be competitive in the long run, or for which the content, synergy-wise, was not sufficient and was not relevant enough. Because in the large banking groups, there are a lot of reporting, IT requirements that you don't have if you're a smaller bank. We drew up a list of these assets.
We have moved on quite quickly and swiftly on these disposals, and these assets are very good assets that got valued at a high level, but that will be more relevant for other companies, not so much for ourselves. Then let's talk about investments. We want to improve the profitability of this activity. Now, this issue is not only of importance to Société Générale, it's of importance for all European banks. But why is it a particularly important issue at the moment? Possibly because the activity volume is lower in Europe than elsewhere. On top of this, there's a new core regulation in Europe that is currently being implemented. We had to review our activity portfolio because some activities, on the long run, are not going to be profitable. We focused the group. We've got a savings plan that is being rolled out.
The question is to look at whether we are going to lose income on that. I hear that there's some uncertainty. But, of course, I believe that this plan is necessary in the next quarters. We need to be able to show that it's fully consistent with our vision and our ambition. That is, to serve our strategic clients in the long term, in key geographical regions. We are going to drop the activities where we can't become leaders, activities that are going to be very resource-intensive, and we're going to reallocate these resources to other areas or activities, in light of new regulations, that will disappear quickly. We need to continue to work on these issues, but I am convinced that in the following quarters, we are going to come up with some positive answers on these two main questions from our investors.
Over and beyond that, I'd like to talk about our strategy for the next years. Bear in mind that the European banking sector is being completely changed by many newer technologies that are changing behaviors, changing habits, and the possible emerging also of new actors. In Europe, it might take more time, but there are some Chinese players who have asked for banking licenses in Hong Kong, and new regulations are really bringing about true and deeper disruptions. I think that the conditions for future performance is to juggle innovation and responsibility. That's really, I think, what will be at the core of our strategy for the next few years. As regards innovation, we need to continue with the transformation of our métier. I've mentioned a few earlier. It's going to take a lot of time. We can't do it over a few quarters.
2020 will be a very important milestone for retail banking. For example, it will be our target year to have 80% of digitalized processes. We need to go further than that, and we need to adapt to new technologies and to new client behaviors. That's true for all métier. Digital transformation in Russia, in Czech Republic, are very much the same than what we see in France or also in Africa. Second important issue when it comes to innovation is to build business models that can last. Boursorama will probably be the most profitable retail bank in France in the future. Our profitability targets are twice as high as any traditional networks. ALD's growth is quite significant, and there are many more opportunities for that particular activity. We need to continue to build with these startups.
I talked about Africa very quickly, don't forget that a few quarters ago, we launched an electronic portfolio for people in Africa who don't hold bank accounts, and we already have hundreds of thousands of customers on board. On top of adapting existing métier, I think that to be able to compete with GAFAs in Europe is to really build on our strengths. Of course, this innovation must be brought about with our clients' needs in mind and with responsibility in mind. Responsibility, of course, covers digital technologies, data privacy. You might have questions on that. It also covers climate-related issues. How are we going to fund the energy transition? Over the last 10 years, Société Générale has been a pioneer in this area. We've built up expertise on how to fund new renewable energies.
There's a ranking that came out in 2018, that places us at the second place for the bank that funds the most renewable energy projects. Second in the world, first in France. Our target was to fund EUR 100 billion between 2016 and 2020 worth of new renewable energy projects. We're currently at EUR 70 billion. There are green bonds, for example, also loans that we give out. Our target was EUR 15 billion of loans, and we are already at 21. We are funding renewable energies. Secondly, as regards this portfolio of fossil energy. Six NGOs published a report. It's got nothing to do with banking, these six NGOs that keep track of the energy transition, published a report. The four main French banks, when you put them all together, still fall behind the largest U.S. bank.
On this ranking, Société Générale is 23rd. We are slightly under BNPP and pretty much at the same level as Crédit Agricole. Thirdly, in this transition process in supporting and helping our clients, we have discontinued some investments. For example, oil from the Arctic or oil sands throughout the world. We were the first bank to commit to phase out funding to coal-related projects. We also committed to a 90% target for the share of coal in the production of electricity that we fund with a deadline in 2020. We'll be taking new commitments to reduce our coal portfolio. Of course, some stakeholders, and we might discuss it later, would like us to go even faster. I'd like to remind you that when it comes to transition, we need to remain realistic.
We need to support our clients in this transition and also help the economies that need funding to develop themselves. When it comes to responsibility and innovation, we are committed to supporting our clients. We want our clients to be satisfied, and that satisfaction is a key element of our compensation. We also are committed to equity, corporate social responsibility, and I will be very proud if we are able to reach these targets, find the right solutions. I hope that we can keep the trust of supervisors in the long run. There's another issue that I would like to mention, one that makes us really unique, and that is the whole issue of Africa and of its sustainable development. The 20 to 30 years, that will be one of the largest issues in the world, especially for Europe, because of the projected demographics in Africa.
There'll be some 2 billion people in Africa in years to come. To protect political stability in Europe, we need to support Africa right now in developing itself sustainably. In that particular area, Société Générale has already played a very important role. A lot of banks who had a marginal footprint in these countries in Africa, are withdrawing from Africa, whereas we are investing more in Africa with our Grow with Africa initiative, where we're going to allocate more resources. We're going to be funding infrastructure in highways, in metro networks, and we're also going to invest in an electronic portfolio so that people in Africa can make transactions easily. They can pay their bills, for example. We will also be funding SMEs, which is a pivotal issue for Africa. Here we have a positioning that makes us really unique here at Société Générale.
Overall, when I take a look at the future, as I mentioned, I want us to harness and to make the most of everything that we've built in the different métiers and in the different regions where we operate. Very few banks in Europe can make that kind of statement. We need to implement that strategy and bring on board new clients in mature markets and in new markets. I'd like to conclude on a more personal note. When it was confirmed that my mandate would be submitted to your vote for renewal, I wondered whether I would have enough energy and motivation to continue and transform the bank in the future. Of course, my answer to that question is yes, for three main reasons.
First of all, I've been working at Société Générale for 24 years. I can tell you that I am as proud to be a banker today as I was on day one. It's a fantastic job. We have long-term relations, trust-based relations with our clients. It is also a business that has changed a lot over the last few years, but being a part of that transformation is extremely exciting, and being able to thrive in spite of constraints is a fantastic challenge. I'd like to tell you how committed and confident I am that we are going to reach our target, and I too am a shareholder of Société Générale, and my interests are therefore perfectly in line with yours.
Finally, I would like to tell you that I harbor the values of this bank that I have devoted the last 24 years of my life to. I have great determination. I want to preserve the capital of the bank and continue to defend the values and the principles of this bank. My priorities for the next mandate, should you approve, of course, of my renewal, is to complete the transformation of the métier, including retail banking in France and market activities. Secondly, continue to make sure that Société Générale is recognized as the number one innovation bank. I'm very proud that 2018 was a year marked, because there's an award that is given out by Les Echos every year, and it's the eCAC40 award. We're the number one digital company after having been up in the top three or second, third in the last few years.
Thirdly, I want to confirm and deliver the financial and strategic targets and to fuel this profitable, responsible, and sustainable growth. If you decide to vote for the renewal of my mandate, be sure that I will continue to deliver on these objectives, goals, and that my interests are very much in line with yours. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Frédéric Oudéa. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, we are now going to move on to corporate governance. In the registration document, you have the report on corporate governance, and you can read the board's activity reports, the committee's reports, and the chairman's reports as well. In keeping with our statutes and our in-house regulation, we decided with Mr. Oudéa to respect the balance of roles of the board of directors and the general management.
The board of directors devoted a lot of time in 2018 and at the beginning of 2019 to the tracking of the implementation of the strategic plan in a context that was less favorable than anticipated. It approved a certain appetite for risk and the capital trajectory, and we also worked on the remediation agreements. The board of directors has also committed to tracking social and environmental risks. The board also approved the performance declaration or the extra-financial performance declaration. A first mapping of these risks has been drawn up, and you'll find it at page 250. In keeping with the PACTE Law, the board of directors will continue with this line of thought by working on the strategy of the bank that Frédéric Oudéa has just reminded us of.
In 2018, as every other year, the board of directors met up with the representatives of the ECB so that they can carry out their supervising activities. The board also set the objectives that trigger remuneration for the board members. The board of directors rely on the hard work made by the committees, especially the risk and audit, and internal control committee that did a great work. The risk committee is also in charge of supervising risks in the U.S., we will also reinforce the training of board members in some complex areas, such as accounting rules, for example. As regards my personal role, I actively took part in discussions with regulators and met up with shareholders and international investors, especially in the build-up to this general assembly.
In 2018, the board of directors also managed the evolution in the organization of the general management that I mentioned last year. On 14th of May 2018, Didier Valet stepped down against the backdrop of the dispute with the U.S. The facts go back to the period before which he was actually at the bank. Frédéric Oudéa suggested to the committee and the board a reorganization of the general direction with four Deputy Chief Executive Officers, I reminded you who they were earlier on. After the appointment committee giving its green light, the board approved this proposal built around people with a strong banking experience, but from very different backgrounds and with complementary skills as enshrined in the strategic plan. After this restructuring, Bernardo Sánchez-Incera considered that the reduction of his supervision scope challenged the very core of his mandate, he decided to step down.
It's, for me, a good opportunity to thank Didier Valet and Bernardo Sánchez-Incera for the great work that they have done. The board of directors will be suggesting to Frédéric Oudéa to renew his mandate in 2019. Frédéric Oudéa has got very strong experience. He knows how to manage crises. He's got a good strategic vision, this is why we believe that the council should renew his mandate. The Deputy Chief Executive Officers that were appointed a year ago will also be renewed based on the proposal of Frédéric Oudéa. Two mandates are up for renewal. Kyra Hazou, who is a board member since 2011, member of the Audit Committee, and internal control, she also takes an active part in the U.S. Risk Committee. Her input, especially for legal aspects, has been very important, she was fully committed throughout her whole mandate.
Gérard Mestrallet, Independent Director since 2015 and Chairman of the Appointment Committee and member of the Remuneration Committee. It would be his second mandate if he was to be renewed. He played an important role in managing renewals and the new structuration of the general directorate in 2018, he has an outstanding experience when it comes to managing large international corporations. These two proposals are fully in line with the board of directors' vision, insofar as we have all the necessary skills brought together in this lineup, as you can see on the slide up on the screen. The board members, there will be 14 members altogether, including two representatives of employees and 11 independent board members.
I'm going to hand over the floor to Jean-Bernard Lévy, Chairman of the Remuneration Committee, who'll be talking about the compensation policy and the resolutions that you have the vote on, especially for say on pay.
I'm going to be describing the compensation policies and practices for your group. In 2018, the Compensation Committee met eight times in order to examine and give an opinion to the Board as regards the compensation policy for the group. In particular, it ensured that the policy and compensation principles were in line with the regulations and the group objectives in terms of management of equity as well as risk control. It also prepared the decisions of the Board as regards the compensation of corporate officers and the regulated persons, as well as the awarding of shares to certain employees. In accordance with the Sapin II Law, the principles and policies were reviewed for 2019, and in particular, voted on the variable component of their compensation for 2018. Let's take a look at the compensation policy for the group.
As regards fixed and variable pay, the practices of Société Générale are in line with our benchmarks. In the framework of measures decided by the government at the end of 2018, the group in France awarded one exceptional bonus. Several specific mechanisms have been put into place in order to build loyalty to employees. We have performance shares. Here, the amount allotted that are not for employees that are subject to the deferred variable pay is stable at EUR 40 million. As is the case last year, part of the amount was awarded as bonus shares or performance shares. This is part of the authorization voted by the Shareholders' Meeting on 23rd May 2018.
Looking at profit sharing for Société Générale S.A., the overall amount for 2018 stood at EUR 117 million, to which can be added a supplement, exceptional profit sharing, an amount of EUR 1,000 maximum per employee. As a reminder, on 31 December 2018, employee shareholders accounted for 6.17% of the share capital and 10.91% of the voting rights. As was the case each year, the compensation policy for regulated persons was reviewed by our supervisors, the ECB and the ACPR, and of course by internal control teams that concluded that the risk of non-compliance was appropriately covered. Turning now to the ex-ante compensation of the executive managers.
The main changes that were approved last year involved changing the criteria for the quantitative share of the annual variable pay, in particular with the introduction of criteria, first of all, based upon the profitability of equity, based upon ROTE for the group scope and RONE for the specific responsibility scopes, and the level of equity. This is the Core Tier 1 ratio, which Frédéric Oudéa was just speaking about a moment ago. In order to better align the compensation policy with the strategic targets and the risk appetite within the group. Second, looking at changes in the performance conditions applicable to long-term profit sharing in order to make them more demanding and more in line with the compensation policy, with commitments in terms of social-environmental responsibility for the group.
The new CSR criterion involves 20% to the amount awarded, half linked to compliance with the group's commitments, and they are the financing of the energy transition of the half of the group's positioning within primary extra-financial ratings. As regards the part of the performance that remains based upon the total return for shareholders, no share will be awarded if this ratio is below the median value, whereas before it was within the last quartile. Here, we have an additional requirement that has been set up. Now turning to the compensation for the chief executive officer and the deputy executive officers, made up of fixed variable pay as well as a long-term profit sharing. This policy involves a short and long-term horizon, we can see that there is a strong alignment with the interest of the shareholders.
Fixed pay for the executive managers is stable maintained for 2019 at EUR 1.3 million for the CEO, EUR 800,000 for the deputy CEOs. The annual variable pay is based upon performance for the year and the contribution of the corporate officers in the success of Société Générale. Success is based upon the basis of financial objectives. The criteria were reviewed versus the previous years, I just indicated, and qualitative objectives that are set in keeping with the group's leadership model. The qualitative objectives that are common to all of the senior executives are involving the following themes, implementation of the group strategy and its businesses with specific focus on cost control and the management of rare resources.
Second, operational efficiency and risk control, the bolstering of the ability to innovate, and last, achieving objectives in the area of social-environmental responsibility, which involves, in particular, an objective for the positioning of Société Générale in the extra-financial ratings indices. The overall amount that results has been a ceiling set at 135% of the annual fixed pay for the CEO and 115% for the deputy CEOs. It is subject to the same constraints as those of the regulated persons. In other words, it is spread over three years and two-thirds of which is paid in shares. Plus, the payment or vesting is subject to achieving two future performance conditions. One condition involving level of equity and the second involving profitability.
We can see that the long-term profit-sharing goal is to associate the executive managers the performance in the long term of the group and to align their interests with those of the shareholders. Identical ceiling to that of the variable amount will be applied as a fair value. Its vesting will require a condition involving the share performance of the group versus a panel of comparable European banks. This year, we have another condition, which was based upon the group CSR performance. The amounts will be deferred up to seven years, and the final payment value also has a ceiling set. The total amount of the annual variable pay and long-term profit sharing has a ceiling set of two times the fixed compensation. As regards the chairman of the board, he receives EUR 925,000 per year since May 23rd, 2018.
For 2018, he received EUR 195,000, to which can be added the payment of his business accommodations in Paris. Looking at the severance conditions for the corporate officers, they have been adjusted. As a reminder, the Deputy CEOs receive compensation for their non-compete clause. It is equal to the amount of their fixed compensation. This clause has been modified in order to comply with the principle of non-payment in the event of leaving six months following the liquidation of the pension or beyond the age of 65.
Also, we have a severance pay only if it is set up by the group, by the board of directors, equal to two years of fixed pay, and it is to comply with the principle of non-payment in the event of leaving six months preceding liquidation of the pension or the possibility of leaving. If they have a full rate as defined by the French social security system, or if the company or the CEO is in a situation of FH at the time when the employee leaves. The accumulated amount is in line with the ceiling recommended by the AFEP, MEDEF, two years of annual fixed and variable pay. The additional pension scheme applicable to the Deputy CEOs also has been modified following the revision of the management scheme starting on January 1st, 2019.
This change involves a reduction in the future vesting of rights in the framework of the defined benefit scheme and setting up the additional defined payment scheme as understood under Article 82. The vesting will be subject to a performance condition. Last, I'd like to underscore that Frédéric Oudéa does not benefit from any additional pension from Société Générale. I'd like to move on to the ex-post compensation that is for 2018. When we look at the compensation that was paid to the CEO, the payments of which are subject to the approval of the shareholders' meeting, are as follows: Fixed pay of EUR 1.3 million, that has not changed since 31 July 2014. Annual variable pay that corresponds to an overall reaching of 71.3% of the objectives and stands at EUR 1,251,151.
Mr. Frédéric Oudéa voluntarily has renounced part of this compensation following the agreements and following certain major disputes in 2018. The amount of this voluntary reduction of 50% is equal to EUR 1,063,478, which is a reduction of 19% versus 2017. The amount of long-term profit sharing attributed in February 2019 for 2018, which for Frédéric Oudéa stands at EUR 636,936. Here again, after an adjustment downwards by the board in order to comply with the regulatory demand for a ceiling being set for the variable component versus fixed compensation as set up by the European directive. He has no attendances, no stock options, and no additional pension.
Just as a comparison, as you can see on the slide that we have here, if you look at the total compensation for Frédéric Oudéa, it is below the average and median compensation paid to the senior executives of the CAC 40 companies in France, as well as the benchmark set up of 11 European banks looking at how we determine long-term profit sharing. This positioning in terms of compensation is in line with the performance of Société Générale as regards its peers, and this respecting the principle of pay for performance. The compensation paid in 2018 to Mr. Frédéric Oudéa is defined as being the total of his fixed compensation. His annual variable compensation in 2018 is 41 times the gross average pay of an employee in Société Générale France . This ratio is down versus 2017. It had been 46 in 2017. It's 41 in 2018.
Looking at the Deputy CEOs, the variable component is structured, as was the case for the CEO, with annual variable pay, EUR 485,555 for Séverin Cabannes, after the voluntary reduction of 7.5% subsequent to the agreements passed in 2018 for certain disputes. This brings the variable pay of Séverin Cabannes down by 28% versus 2017. The annual variable pay for Philippe Aymerich, Philippe Heim, and Diony Lebot as Deputy CEOs has been calculated on a pro-rated basis in light of the date when they took on their terms in 2018. They stand respectively for EUR 23,105 for Philippe Aymerich, EUR 437,300 for Philippe Heim, and EUR 393,030 for Diony Lebot.
The variable pay is also made up of long-term profit sharing, which after the downward adjustment by the board in order to comply with the regulatory requirement of setting a ceiling for the variable component with regards to the fixed compensation in line with European directive stands at EUR 268,501 for Philippe Aymerich, EUR 477,046 for Séverin Cabannes, EUR 260,560 for Philippe Heim, and EUR 278,970 for Diony Lebot. The long-term profit sharing awarded to Mr. Aymerich and Ms. Lebot, of course, was calculated on a pro-rated basis. On this slide, you can see the compensation paid out to Didier Vallet as corporate officer, which term terminated on March 14, 2018, so it's a pro-rated amount of the annual gross pay that was paid to him in 2018 as a Deputy CEO.
On the slide, you can also see the payment that was paid to Bernardo Sanchez Incera for his term, which ended on 13 May 2018. Mr. Sanchez Incera was considered to be forced by the board of directors. We can see we have a pro-rated amount of the gross annual compensation paid in 2018 as Deputy CEO, the non-compete pay as well as the severance pay authorized by the board of directors at its meeting on 8 February 2017, approved by the shareholders' meeting at its session of 23 May 2017. Last, the compensation committee assured that it reviewed the conditions for paying the regulated persons or risk-takers within the framework of the CRD IV.
These persons are identified either through qualitative criteria linked to their function and level of responsibility, their ability to involve the bank in terms of risk exposure or quantitative criteria linked to their level of total compensation for the previous financial year. For 2018, 827 risk-takers were identified, of which 55%, 456 exactly, are residing outside of France. The overall amount of variable pay for the regulated persons, excluding corporate officers, stands at EUR 193 million, and the average amount stands at EUR 239,000, is down by 8% versus 2017. The overall amount of total compensation for 2018, excluding corporate officers, is EUR 430.6 million. The average amount, EUR 534,000, which is down by 4%.
I want to draw your attention to the fact that these amounts are different from those that are subject to for a consultative vote within the framework of Resolution 24, which involves the amounts that were paid in 2018 and does not reflect the performance for the year in light of the large share of the deferred variable pay and stood at EUR 451 million. Thank you.
Thank you. We're now going to move on to the written questions. We received two written questions. The first one from Mr. Toure, who is a victim of a mistake from our departments in handling his inheritance and is worried about the life insurance contract's application in event of his demise. The question and response from the board of directors are on the site of the shareholders' general meeting.
I'd like to reassure him as regards the bank's commitments to ensure that customer satisfaction is at the heart of its actions, in particular the application of legislation as regards assets for customers following a death. The second question, which was asked by IPAC, Initiative for a Citizen Shareholding. The text of the question is as follows. On May 24th and on June 5th, 2018, our company respectively concluded two agreements, one with the National Financial Prosecutor's Office, the other with the Department of Justice in the United States, in order to put an end to a preliminary investigation on the Libyan dossier. This preliminary investigation was opened November 2016 on the motive of corruption of foreign public agents.
It involved a business between our company and the Libyan Investment Authority between 2007 and 2010, and involved a company based in Panama as well as one close to the Gaddafi family. Could you give me information regarding this issue? The draft response from Société Générale is as follows. Thank you very much for your interest for the transaction closing the LIA dossier that occurred last June. The facts were described in the statement of facts enclosed with the agreement to suspend the deferred prosecution agreement. This agreement, as well as the statement of facts, are available on the Department of Justice in its press release dated for June 2018. As the bank stated when it announced the agreements with the U.S. Department of Justice, these agreements have put an end to the investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice concerning the U.S. legislation infringement as regards the corruption of foreign officers.
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. These agreements closed off the investigation opened for the same facts by the National Financial Prosecutor's Office. Société Générale accepted to pay approximately EUR 500 million, $293 million, to the U.S. Department of Justice. This amount was totally covered by the provisions that were quoted in the counsel the bank allotted to this dispute. The bank is fully committed to ensuring that its policies, procedures, and internal controls enable any infringements of anti-corruption legislation to be prevented and detected. The bank has nothing to add to the statements that were made when the agreements were announced. We are going to move to the debate. As is the case each year, I will give the floor, first of all, to the Shareholders' Consultative Committee.
Mr. Le Dûgailhury will be speaking on its behalf, so I'd like to ask him to please ask the question.
Good morning.
Sir.
What makes you confident in your ability to reach the targets that you have set for 2020?
Thank you. The question is, what makes us confident in our ability to achieve the targets for 2020? For those who didn't hear, Frédéric. We set two targets, one in terms of profitability and one in terms of level of capital. Profitability, of course, helping to ramp up our capital. The first part. In our retail bankings in France, being able to update our interest rate scenarios, that was the important point. Of course, we are going to be continuing to work on transformations. 18 months into the process, we have good ideas regards the type of income, the cost of risk in an interest rate environment, again, that is much more negative than we had initially considered. We're looking at no increase in interest rates.
As regards investment in retail banking, here, for four months, we looked at a very fine level of detail at the profitability of our businesses. That is what enabled us to determine which businesses would be involved. We have a very clear view of the loss in income and, of course, any savings generated by the refocusing of the group. Here, we're doing the same thing with an implementation that started, that is being steered at a central level, very high level of precision. I think that it is quite likely we'll be able to meet our objectives. Again, perhaps the most important part in terms of investors, capital.
We've looked at the trajectory at the end of 2020, encompassing the various items, looking at the capital generated by our earnings, looking at the type of steering that we have in terms of allocating capital to each one of the business areas, how we take into account disposals. As a reminder, we have slightly more than half our disposals carried out under good conditions. Once again, we've been able to take into account the payment option dividends this year, we've scheduled a cash payment for 2019 and 2020 for the dividend according to the distribution rules. We've left some room for maneuver, meaning that there is at the end of 2020, it being higher than 12, meaning for a given reason, if we had a deviation in an area, we have some room for maneuver, enabling us to absorb that gap.
I think that we have the wherewithal we need in order to achieve our goals. We will be doing so, and we will be able to deliver to ensure that we'll be addressing the two issues that I brought up, which I believe are the questions involving our investors. Thank you. You have various hostesses and stewards here who have microphones. They are holding up panels with numbers on them. We'll be taking three questions in a row. I will start on my left, so four, three, and 11. Those will be the first questions, and the others we'll be looking at afterward. Make sure you ask your questions directly so that we have time for everyone to be able to take the floor. Number 4.
Roger Tran. I'm a French shareholder. Sir, the American authorities are currently investigating a potential situation in which Société Générale would have manipulated interbank rates, LIBOR. With Mr. Didier Vallet resigning, that does not mean that Société Générale is completely immaculate in this area. What do you think about this? You've just showed us some information on Boursorama. With Boursorama, you have a free payment card. With Société Générale, you charge EUR 45 to EUR 50 in annual fees. We've seen takeover bids that have taken place in the past few years. Société Générale share price is at -59, BNP at -130. We can see Crédit Agricole at -40. What do you think about equity, that the level is too low? Thank you.
Maxime Lemoine. I'm an individual shareholder. The international community in 2015 set the goal of containing the rise in degrees, keeping it at two degrees Celsius, and ensuring we'd not go over 1.5 degrees Celsius. The last IPCC report has highlighted that this gap is a question of survival, with hundreds of millions of people being affected by rising sea levels, by heat waves, by water shortages, and famine. Société Générale is endeavoring to align with the Paris Agreement that is taking as a benchmark scenarios that ignoring the objective of limiting this increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius, even worse.
It is only applying it to half of its financing activities. This type of commitment, in no case can be justified when your bank is playing a role in fossil fuels that others have set aside. We only have a few years to drastically change what will be happening. We need to be able to contain the greenhouse gases, Société Générale must endeavor to do so. My question is the following. Do you recognize this objective of 1.5 degrees Celsius, are you committing to aligning all of your businesses in line with this objective? Are you going to lead us toward a world we could not live in where the increase will be three degrees or higher?
Thank you. Number 11. Claude Arroche. I have considerations as regards all of the shareholders. The market capitalization of Société Générale has continued to deteriorate over the years.
If we look at 2016, 2017, 34.8. The end of 2017, 22.5. It is true that the last financial year has been impacted by various issues. LIBOR, Libya, the U.S. Department of Justice. Apparently, some have been resolved, but despite this, we can see that the share prices continue to decline over these first few months of 2019.
Here is my question. Does Société Générale, in order to foster development of business and trade in France, which had been its original name in 1864, after 155 years of existence, can it survive on its own? Has the time come perhaps for it to be combined with a European or French bank? It missed out on combining with BNP Paribas some 20 years ago. It missed out on combining with Crédit Lyonnais some 12 years ago.
What are you waiting for to take a step to be able to give confidence back to your shareholders and investors, then the share price would rise and reach the levels of 2015 and 2016. Thank you. Shall we answer those three questions? Perhaps Philippe Aymerich could talk about Boursorama, the differentiated fees.
Diony, LIBOR, we could be responding to the question involving climate. I will be taking the question on LIBOR, and I will be touching upon the consolidation challenges. For the LIBOR, we signed an agreement with the U.S. authorities as regards this issue at the beginning of the year. The beginning of 2018. It has removed any financial uncertainties as regards this dispute. As we stated, this is a period during which for three years, we have remedies, a series of actions in conjunction with the U.S. authorities.
If we are able to meet their expectations, the risks will definitively be removed as regards any legal proceedings. This is behind us, but I would like to underscore the fact when we look at these disputes, when we take stock, you will see that Société Générale, whether it is in turn the number of legal disputes or the financial amounts involved, is not the bank that will have paid the most. Having said that, we have these three disputes that need to be settled, and we have put them behind us, thanks to the agreements that have been reached with the U.S. authorities. I don't want to go back over the very many explanations that I gave regarding the share price. Take into account the dividend paid, but it is true that 2018, generally speaking, had been quite bad for the banking sector.
We mentioned that other banks lost between 30% and 35%. It is particularly at the beginning of the year for the share price, as you underscored yourself, and I believe that we spoke about the response we would be bringing to these questions, and that it is not consolidation that will settle the issue of profitability, in my opinion, as regards market activities at the level of capital. More generally speaking, as regards consolidation issues, I would just like to indicate that the banking consolidation in Europe should be the logical outcome of a complete European Banking Union. The problem is that we have not been able to achieve a Banking Union. We do not know when that will occur. We need to look at the rules that will be applied.
Ultimately, it's a European banking market that is heavily fragmented, whereas the idea was to create a banking market that would be completely integrated, going beyond borders. We still have national rules that are hindering the circulation of capital and liquidities. We still have uncertainty as regards the type 2 settlement mechanism we will have, how we can handle crisis if necessary. In sum, the framework that we set out over the next few quarters will not fundamentally be conducive to this type of market necessarily. I'd just like to stress something that might seem simple on the surface, there's nothing more complicated than merging a bank.
In my opinion, we have a priority that is creating much more value initially, which involves completing our trajectory over the next few quarters, and we'll see if necessary, if that type of scenario would be creating more value or not, so that we could continue on this trajectory. Now, Philippe, maybe on the fees for retail banking in France.
Yes. Thank you very much for your question. Thank you, really, because it allows me to talk about an important point of our model in France. In France, we operate on the market via three banks that have different personalities
different specificities and who reach out to different kinds of clients who have different expectations in terms of service quality and price. It's very important for us to have these three different banks, these three different personalities. For Boursorama, for instance, because you mentioned it in your question, it reaches out to private individuals who are looking for the cheapest online banking solution, which has been the case for Boursorama for the last 11 years. A banking offer that works either on an app or over the internet. For Société Générale clients, it's important to bear in mind that half of Société Générale's incomes come from corporations and loans to companies. Regarding the private individuals at Société Générale, your clients is people who want a digital experience, but also who want to be able to discuss with an advisor, and with experts.
There's also high-net-worth individuals, that is an important area for us. For Crédit du Nord, here, we're reaching out to clients who want a high quality of service, and Crédit du Nord and its regional banks are deeply embedded in their regions and cater to SMEs. It's important to have these different fees, these different levels of service quality. On the question about climate, I would like to go back over our climate strategy that was presented earlier by Frédéric Oudéa. I would like to remind you that we have taken some significant commitment, since 2016, in fact, when we had this 2-degree scenario from the International Energy Agency. We have a very proactive climate strategy. We're one of the very first players to make strong commitments in the area of coal, as Frédéric mentioned earlier.
We were the first to stop funding to coal power plants and to fund the renewable energies, in fact, we are ahead of schedule. We've also made some important commitments when it comes to supporting and helping our clients in the energy transition and in funding renewable energies. EUR 100 billion is our target by 2020, we're already at EUR 70 billion, as Frédéric Oudéa mentioned earlier. We are also working on newer scenarios. The whole scenario issue is very complicated. There are several scenarios out there that have different consequences on different sectors. It's very important to align ourselves on one scenario and on one methodology.
We're very proactive in this particular area, we have Katowice Commitment and four other banks with which we are working to come up with a new scenario that could go over and beyond the 2-degree scenario to align our portfolio on this new scenario. We think that it's really very important in this area to work with other banks and other experts to have a shared scenario to improve our transparency on our commitment. We're going to continue to operate in the very same way, in a responsible manner, in a proactive manner to support this energy transition that sits at the heart of our owner strategy.
Number 7, 6, and then 5. Good afternoon. I'm an individual shareholder and a client of Société Générale for the last 60 years, a longer period of time than Mr. Oudéa's time at the bank.
Throughout these 60 years, I have never noticed such a poor level of service for clients. The IT is always changing. You have PIN numbers that we have to write down because they're always changing. Do you think that there'll be more people, more opportunities for one-to-one discussions with actual human beings at Société Générale? Thank you very much, Bernard Delpeuch, individual shareholder. When you presented the strategic plan, Transform to Grow, if I remember correctly, you told us that the growth objective for the next banking income was 3% per year. I understand that the world has changed and things are more complicated than anticipated. You also told us that management costs would go up 1.2% per year. If you look at current figures, you are slightly off target.
What is the target for 2020 in regards your net banking income, regarding growth of management costs versus 2016?
Thank you. Number 5, please.
Good afternoon. Victorine Pechoux, individual shareholder. I heard that Société Générale was very involved in shale gas in the U.S. with exporting terminals that have been funded by Société Générale, in spite of the fact that it's been banned in France since 2011 because of the consequences it carry on health and on the environment. In the U.S., the tapping of shale gas could contribute very significantly to greenhouse gas emissions. BNP Paribas decided to withdraw from such investments. When are you going to do the same and stop funding this sector that is poisonous to the earth and all life?
Séverin Cabannes will be answering on shale gas.
Clients.
We will hand it over to Séverin Cabannes.
As for the financial question, I'll probably take this one. Just to remind you quickly, we have reviewed down our income by EUR 1 billion in 2 EUR 500 million segments. First of all, because of the drop of interest rates and the commitment that we took with the government, against the backdrop of the Yellow Vests movement, to not increase our fees and to have lower fees for the more vulnerable of our clients, that cost us EUR 70 million. There's our market activities, where there's also downwards impact. We will be growing again in 2020 compared to 2019 in all of Métier. For retail banking, we will continue to have lower income, between 0% and 1%.
We continue to pay 0.4% when we deposit money at the European Central Bank. We don't pass this on to the clients. Because we're depositing more and more deposits, an increasing amount of money. International banking and financial services is continuing to grow. You see the difference compared to retail banking in France. For the rest, we will have more growth after the refocusing plan is completed. There'll be positive signals in 2020 for all of the Métier. The cost for retail banking will continue to increase throughout 2019, between 1%-2%, and will start going down next year. The cost for international retail banking are increasing, not as fast as income, and we've capped costs for investments at EUR 6.8 billion for next year. Positive signals effect there. That will be translated into more positive results in 2020.
Philippe, quickly on quality of service. First of all, thank you very much for your loyalty, because 60 years of relationship with a bank is a very long time, and it's precisely the bank that we want to be for our clients. This loyalty makes your dissatisfaction even more painful for me to hear about. I'll discuss it with you maybe on one-to-one, if you agree, to understand your particular circumstances. I'm going to skip over the new code that brings about more security in a complicated world. The first thing that we must deliver on is security. Of course, we are working on other identification means that might come instead of these codes or these PIN numbers. For Crédit du Nord and Société Générale, the model is still based on women and men.
Currently, we are undertaking huge efforts in terms of recruitment because our financial advisors are a key part of what we do. We also train these financial advisors because we know that people such as yourself want to be able to discuss with financial advisors and branch managers. Our branch managers are really the backbone of our group, and if they choose to become branch managers, it's because they want to become bankers that discuss on a one-to-one basis with their clients. I'll be delighted to continue this discussion with you later on. It's really our raison d'être. Thank you very much for your question on the climate strategy of Société Générale.
I'm not going to repeat what was said earlier. What is difficult for us, not just ourselves, but for all banks and all citizens, is how we are going to manage a transition between the current state of play and a world where there will be no greenhouse gas emissions. It's all about the trajectory that we follow. We talked about the 1.5 degrees target or scenario. That's one scenario, there's not one single scenario that comes out. Renewable energies will not be able to take a big share of energy production in the short term. In spite of the efforts that we have undertaken, the development of renewable energies is not significant enough to substitute fossil energies. We believe that natural gas, including shale gas, is a transition energy that will allow us to phase out coal.
When you look at greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. over the last 10 years, they have decreased, thanks in great part to shale gas. On this particular issue, we don't know. I'm sorry, I'm not making any forecast for 2050 such as you are. What is important is to stick to the highest standards on the energy transitions that we currently dispose of. Société Générale is very active in this particular area. For the whole cycle, from extraction to consumption, we abide by the most stringent standards, and that's part of our CSR strategy. This trajectory that we are all building together is going to give way to a lot of discussion, it's true. Don't forget that shale gas is responsible for the U.S. phasing out coal.
Number 10, please.
Good afternoon. My name is Sixtine. I'm 22 years old. On the 15th of March 2019, we came to Société Générale HQ with young teenagers to tell you about how concerned we were with investment in fossil energies.
S'il vous plait
you completely ignored these young people who came to you to discuss these issues.
[Foreign language] You've just shown us a nice slide with figures on the climate. You've told us about your responsibility, at the same time, you're telling us that we are the future, when we tell you that the future that you are preparing for us is terrifying, you don't implement anything that is convincing. What are you going to tell young people who are terrified by the future that you're preparing?
Number four, please.
Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders. I'm an individual shareholder, Mr. Marmont. Mr. Chairman, you've told us that you've taken steps to reach your targets by setting aside everything that is negative. I am not convinced that this is the right thing to do. We need visibility in the area of banking, the current model needs to be overhauled. Given the fact that your corporate and private clients are finding life very difficult their purchasing power is being reduced, can you tell us, in light of all of this, how you intend to improve the financial situation of Société Générale? What are the levers that you are going to use? What are the steps that you are going to take without jeopardizing your interests and stakeholders? That's it for me. Thank you very much.
Number eight, please.
Marie Cauvière, individual shareholder. I'd like to go back to shale gas, because the answer that you've come up with is not satisfactory.
Please. Can we let her speak? [Foreign language]
You've told us that this whole issue of shale gas is an energy transition and that we have to use it. We're here to tell you that it's a complete suicide. I would like to go back to something that is very important. It's the support of the Rio Grande LNG project. NGOs have been flagging this up for the last couple of years, telling you that it's a project that is detrimental to the environment and to human rights. The Société Générale received a lot of data on this project. We have other banks, such as BNP Paribas, for example, who have already discontinued their advising activities to people who run this project. My question is, what kind of impact are you ready to close a blind eye to, and what's the price of human life and climate?
C'est vrai. Denis, c'est vrai? Expliquez-vous mieux. Maybe we need a better explanation. D'autres questions?
Non. Il y a les trois.
Is that it for the round of questions? We've got three questions. Oui. Je reviens sur la question précédente. Yes, I'd just like to go back to your previous question. Aujourd'hui, il existe un gaz à effet de serre pour l'exploitation du gaz de schiste. When it comes to shale gas and it's tapping, it releases a lot of methane gas. We are working at how we can, and we've made commitments in that area already, how we can phase out funding to higher methane gas projects. Sur le plan gouvernemental, la prise en compte, c'est celle-ci. Les projections à 30 ans, c'est une autre question. Sur Rio Grande, je veux bien y revenir vraiment parce que vous avez raison de dire que l'on manque effectivement la petite explication publique.
Le processus d'évaluation et d'approbation de ces projets, c'est-à-dire un pipeline d'exportation au Texas, est en cours, comme vous le savez très bien. C'est un projet qui est à la fois mené par Société Générale et des banques régionales et fédérales aux États-Unis. Un consultant indépendant a aussi été mandaté pour faire une due diligence environnementale et sociale pour le compte des entreprises qui financent ce projet. C'est en cours, tout est en cours. Nous avons évidemment une politique environnementale et sociale qui a été rendue publique et des engagements que nous honorerons jusqu'au bout. All of this is underway. We have a social and environmental policy that has been made public and that we will be sticking to in that project. All of this investigation is currently underway and we are awaiting the outcome.
Pour répondre à votre question, comme nous avons eu l'occasion de le souligner, nous prenons en compte la situation particulièrement des populations dites fragiles dans l'ensemble de leurs dimensions. On s'est engagé en 2019 à ne pas augmenter ses tarifs. Par ailleurs, merci pour le combat que nous menons. C'est un engagement qui coûte, je l'ai rappelé. EUR 100 million pour la profession, EUR 70 million pour la Société Générale. Oui, c'est un manque à gagner. Pour autant, nous avons considéré que c'était l'effort à faire pour garder une forme de sentiment de solidarité, aider à sortir de cette crise. Par ailleurs, Société Générale est très mobilisée dans le financement de projets régionaux. Nous avons rappelé que la France avait créé l'investissement aux entreprises sur l'année.
C'est EUR 60 million donnés pour nous engager dans le territoire, dans le financement de l'économie, mais dans le financement de nouvelles formes de travail qui s'adaptent à la transformation profonde de notre société. Ensuite, oui, c'est true, we need unita with une rentabilité, with investments in digital. C'est simple, mais justement, on a deux trajectoires. Pour strike the right balance, je pense qu'on a pu le faire avec notre trajectoire. On finance EUR 150 million de formation pour les employés de Société Générale sur trois ans. C'est un levier très utile. Nous, c'est un investissement qui pèse sur la rentabilité, mais qui, nous permet de gérer l'adaptation de nos réseaux et de nos équipes, qui comptent beaucoup à des nouveaux métiers, de devenir responsables. Voilà.
Notre travail, c'est de trouver le meilleur équilibre entre les différents actionnaires, salariés, les clients de la Société Générale, et essayer de prendre en compte l'ensemble de ces dimensions.
Number seven, please.
Bonjour. Marie-Jeanne Pasquet. I'm the founder of minoritaire.com. It's a website and I'm also a shareholder of the Société Générale. I would like, first of all, to make a comment. Every time I come to this general assembly, I hear that there will be a takeover bid for the Société Générale. It's always quite amusing to me because I think it's impossible to buy up Société Générale because of all the past mistakes. I don't think that anyone would like to buy up this bank. You also heard about too big to fail, it's not really in the air to merge banks as we saw in Germany. Let's just go back to the disputes.
Mr. Oudéa, you told us that you've taken stock of these disputes and that in terms of sanctions that have been paid, also in terms of the amount of transactions or the level of transactions of these disputes, I imagine you take into account tax-related disputes, that overall, you were underneath most of your competitors. Can you tell us about the figures for that period of time? I remember that as from 2012, Mr. Badré was financial director, he left shortly after in 2012. He told us at the time that the provision that was booked, some EUR 300 million or EUR 400 million, did not correspond to any particular dispute. Then the registration document came out, and we realized that it was a big lie. Mr. Mestrallet knows it. Société Générale had made commitments for some clients and was paying for their disputes.
Each quarter for the last, or each half year, there were new provisions that were booked, and we no longer know where we stand. I'd like to know, overall, how much did all these tax-related or transaction-related disputes make up? You can take the beginning of the early 2000s. I have a second question, sorry. It's about Mr. Sanchez Incera, and it's still related to legal questions. His departure was considered as being forced. Was he laid off, or was he forced to leave the company? Of course, it changes everything from a severance pay point of view. Please, a bit more clarity on that, if you will. It seems like you've organized things in such a way that this gentleman can leave with as much money as possible, as it was in fact the case. What about also these deferred compensations for Mr. Didier Vallet?
When you have your compensation package, you are paid in a deferred way. You have to reach target performances, but that is something that was not really clarified. How much money did they actually take in deferred compensation and free share packages? Was your board generous or not? Thank you very much. Okay. [Foreign language].
Number 2 and number 5, please.
Thank you very much for giving me the floor. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Mr. Oudéa earlier mentioned the recent developments for Boursorama. It's all very positive. I was one of the very first customers of Boursorama with Mr. Morin. He resigned, Mr. Grisoni. It really stretches back a long time ago. When you talk about Boursorama's developments, I have here a letter that I would like to share with you. I would like to increase the number of clients. I wrote a letter, and there's also a document enclosed so that you can increase the number of future clients for Boursorama. Just to go back quickly to Boursorama, since Mr. Morin left the team, I was very sad to see that the IT programmers of Boursorama, and they tell me that it's no longer Boursorama that's in charge of things, but Société Générale.
I have the feeling, in fact, that it is no longer entrusted to engineers who crunch figures. It's just people who use screens and who make everything complicated to read. Why do we have black backdrops with colorful figures on my screen? It's pretty much impossible to read. That's not great. There's another point that's very important to me, because I have an account with Société Générale, and when I looked at the fees that I had to pay out, they are really extremely high. You had GTS Trading as a system a few years ago. It was very good, very clear, very effective. You could also single out periods of time. With the current software, it's nowhere near as good as what we had, and that's quite sad.
Okay. Right. We'll take your question. Thank you very much.
No, I haven't finished.
We need to let other people take the floor.
My question is for Deputy Director General. Could she tell me what her slide was about earlier? She was comparing Q1 2018 and 2017. I must admit, I did not understand this at all.
Okay. [Foreign language]
It's quite mysterious. Thank you very much.
Hello. Yves Tugaye. I'm an individual shareholder. I have a very large number of shares of Société Générale. I have two questions I'd like to ask you. The first one involves the appointment of members of the board. I think that the board is too elitist. It is made up of a sort of a club of those who had been in companies of the CAC 40 in France. I see that out of the names, we have people who also work elsewhere in companies like L'Oréal, Engie. Also, another that's a member of the CAC 40 company as well. I think that's too much. We can see that it's detrimental to the independence of discussions within the board. What I'd like, or this is what I will do, as I vote, I will be opposed to the renewal of one person who is part of this elite.
I will not mention here, as I personally have nothing against him. Second, as regards the interest rate levels, we're a bit perplexed because currently you tell us that you're being penalized by low interest rates, and that as soon as we start talking about interest rates rising, the markets collapse. That's what happened at the end of 2018. We hear contradictory signs coming from the Fed, because Jerome Powell said yesterday that there was a risk involving corporate debt in the U.S. At the same time, we can see that there's a slowdown being confirmed. We're starting to say that the interest rates will drop towards the end of the year. We don't know what to think.
I'd like to know what is a likely development, and what would be best for Société Générale in terms of interest rates, with all of these effects being taken into account. What you have on page 44 for the registration document and regarding Didier Vallet on page 46, for those who are looking, Bernardo, it was not a layoff, it was a resignation. We were not generous. We complied with the rules. I think we were fair. This is as regards the first question that you asked. Perhaps, in response to the last question, as regards the elitism of the Board of Directors, we consider, who should we have on the Board of Directors in the interest of the shareholders? We feel the first thing involves the skills, that they be sufficiently evenly distributed.
We still have the sufficient skills in finance and regulations and international expertise in terms of risk management. That is what we look at when we propose a member of the Board. We also look at the ability to- All of this confirms that when we look at diversity and also in terms of expertise and nationality, and that this is why this Board of Directors is one of very high quality. It's outside judgment being made, and it's one of the questions that I do ask investors. The feedback I get is that we have a very well-balanced Board of Directors with very complementary- I'm not going to answer the interest rate question we would like to have at Société Générale, because unfortunately, the European Central Bank does not set interest rates based upon what we want. Because they will be low.
We prefer negative interest rates are very bad for us. We prefer positive interest rates, of course, and a regular slope with the long-term rates higher than the short-term rates. That's always a question. It holds true the Société for all the banks in the Eurozone. This can lead to a great deal of debt, very inexpensive debt, that this can be more complicated to finance once the rates rise. Which is why there can be concerns as regards American debt for certain structures. That, of course, is one of the requirements we have to manage risks. However, I do agree with you as regards the fact that- and that can be part of our recipe for success. As regards your question, out of all of the disputes for the group, the cost was EUR 4 billion for the past five years.
Look at the rankings that we have. The bank that paid the most was EUR 85 billion. It was American. There are other examples in France where the amounts are around EUR 10 billion total. Yes, we have paid for certain disputes and the first to regret it, but in terms of volume and number, not necessarily the most.
[Foreign language] Boursorama, peut-être. Diony sur le point
Oui, bien sûr, vous l'avez relevé, c'est une erreur.
Yes, what you pointed out is a mistake. I will correct that, of course. The figures in the columns are the right ones. We're comparing 2019 and 2018. It's the titles that are mistaken and will be corrected. Before I turn the floor back, perhaps I could add that today, we do not have more regulatory disputes in here, knock on wood, than what we have already had. We can see sanctions involving exchange rates at the European Commission. We weren't there. A new investigation on sovereign bonds, we're not there. The whole issue of the culture we have is avoiding, in the future, when we look at how we carry out banking, that we have to pay for disputes. Philippe, outside the fact that Benoit is the head of Boursorama. I'd like to thank you for your loyalty.
You can see that you have many different meetings here. Benoit Grisoni has become the Deputy CEO, and he's here, so it's an opportunity for you to talk to him if you want. As regards your question involving information systems, Boursorama has retained its agility for the information systems and for the teams at Boursorama that are very separate from that of Société Générale. The teams are high-performing as well. They're quite separate. We have some pooling. Now, an example I'll take is a very telling one. It is a Boursorama tool that has been pooled, and for Société Générale as well as for Crédit du Nord. So it is the account aggregator engine. It's been developed by a fintech company that was bought by Boursorama. The search engine that has been fleshed out since then is not just aggregating accounts, but also documents.
The teams, of course, are separate. As regards the last point, and I'm sure that Benoit will be happy to discuss this with you, Boursorama, like the other banks, places great importance on the customer experience when we're dealing with the internet applications. We have customer focus groups panels looking at adjustments like the screen color. Apparently, the new charter might not correspond to what you prefer, but it's not just something that bankers make up on their own in a room. We do try to listen to the customer's voice, and particularly for all the tools that directly address the customer. Benoit is here, available to talk to you after the shareholders' general meeting.
Let's try and conclude. We have 1, 10, and 11. Go ahead, sir.
I'd like to repeat my question.
Mr. Lévy, when he took the floor, spoke about the exceptional 2018 bonus, but did not speak about the amount of the bonus, the number of employees involved for Société Générale, for the Crédit du Nord, and for Boursorama. Thank you.
I also said 10 and 11. There are no other questions. I've given the second to 10. No other questions? 11, also here.
May I speak? Yes. I have two questions I would like to ask Mr. Oudéa. The first question. My name is Jacques Parer. I have been a client of Société Générale for some 50 years. I have the following question. The branch I have my account at, is it the only contact I have with Société Générale? I have a problem with my inheritance I've been trying to settle for the past six years.
Just curious whether the branch I am at is the only contact I can have. Second. As I listen to you, Mr. Oudéa, everything's just going swimmingly. I was surprised to read in Le Monde an article on your shareholders' general meeting, which is fairly rare because this newspaper generally doesn't present articles on shareholders' meetings that will be taking place the next day. This article was dated last night. I'm surprised to see now everything is going swimmingly and that there's a great deal of gloom and doom.
Perhaps we can take a last question, number 9. I have a question for Mr. Oudéa. Last year, I asked you a question, sir, that was quite straightforward. Namely that you had a green line for statements. I'm not talking about the environment here, but it's a toll-free number.
If I'm told that I'm in the red, I know what that means. We'd spoken about this in May. I wrote to you in July. I recall the letter sent in July and September. I do not have a response yet. Having said this, at my branch, there were five people. There are only two people left. As soon as I call opening hours, they're already on the platform. There are only two of them, so they can't answer. The call goes to the platform. Last, for the old customers who in 2008 recapitalized the share at EUR 47.50. Try to remember that, sir.
Perhaps you can take another question, and then we'll have number 3, the last round.
Hello, sir. I have an observation when you speak about disputes.
I think there's a dispute you do not mention, that you're not counting, which had been poorly managed. Just like Société Générale, which is the dispute involving Kerviel. After so many years, none of that left a lot of traces. Sir, when you spoke about variable pay, it has a ceiling set at 35% for those directors at EUR 1.3 million, but for the CEO rather. For the Deputy CEO, the salary is lower, which makes sense. Why would they have this ceiling when they have the same criteria? I received a pamphlet here. Société Générale must put an end to its links to Israeli banks, a key player in colonizing Palestinian banks. It comes from one of your unions. Could you perhaps speak about that? We'll answer that, then I'll take the last round of questions because we have voting afterward.
Thank you very much. Perhaps for Philippe and Marie, madam, I remember your question. We will be providing a response. Regarding the bonuses, just the wage policy of the group last year. It was an increase in profit sharing of EUR 1,000 for each employee. In addition to that, we decided to pay out a bonus of EUR 250, so it was the deductible bonus that concerned 25,000 employees of Société Générale. There's an article in Le Monde. There have been many articles that triggered a great deal of interest. You know that when you work in a bank that is being transformed so substantially, it's not easy. As I said, we have high requirements in terms of transformations, in terms of the remedies. What we're trying to do, once again, is to ensure that everyone can be as reassured as possible about their future.
That's the challenge. I think that we've been able to demonstrate to what extent we have been responsible. I won't come back over Kerviel. That's definitively behind us. I remember it. As I said, I always retain what happened during the financial crisis. That's what guides my actions. I misspoke if you had understood that everything was going swimmingly. There are improvements necessary, of course, for the share price to reflect the intrinsic value much better. I showed you tangible net assets. It has increased, and that needs to be reflected in the share price. Philippe, perhaps. A variety of questions. In our model, we would like to be able to offer you a variety of different contact people or channels. We speak a lot about digital channels, more so than ever, we of course have the branch.
The case you mentioned of a branch that went from five employees to two, I think that might be linked to temporary conditions, maybe people away on training or perhaps on maternity or sick leave, because down to two, I don't have that in mind. Maybe down to four, down to three, but five to two must be an exception. You have another channel, which has become important, which is appreciated by clients. These are the phone platforms, and it is a way to be able to respond to many of your questions or needs, to subscribe new products, or to make an appointment with your representative at the bank.
We're trying to have this approach that involves multiple channels, being able to propose to our customers within Société Générale and Crédit du Nord the possibility of interacting with the bank when you want to, depending on the channel, and for specific needs. Perhaps you have various transactions you can carry out on the application, account-to-account transfers. If it's more complicated, you can go through the platform by phone. If you want to meet with your bank representative, you can do so at the branch. That works well. Perhaps sometimes we can have some issues, but generally, we offer choice of interaction to the customer. As regards the questions on compensation, Mr. Lévy presented the overview. If you want more details, you have the compensation policies report, which is available. It's been printed, or you can find it as you leave the room.
You should be able to find the answers to your questions. I'll take one last question, and then we can move on to a vote. Five, two, seven, and eight. Five.
Oui, bonjour. C'est au sujet de votre plateforme-
This is regarding your platform, LogiTel Net.
J'avais toujours l'habitude, enfin depuis 50 ans.
For 50 years.
je fais du traitement.
Since I have been trading on the stock market, I deal with this directly. For the past four years, it's impossible for me to be able to place any orders through LogiTel Net for shares.
[Foreign language]
That have a specific type of dividend. I'm curious, because I have been asking the question, and I have been told that they will check. Meanwhile, I have to go through the branch, and the fees are three times higher.
OK. [Foreign language]
All right.
[Foreign language] Lorette Philippot des Amis de la Terre.
That is for the bonus dividends.
Hello. I would like to take the floor once again.
[Foreign language] Go ahead. [Foreign language]
[Foreign language] We had some 10 young people who came to your shareholders' meeting with questions we felt were legitimate. They know that if we cannot limit climate warming to 1.5 degrees, our planet will not be livable. These are questions that will shape our future. You say in your slogan, "The future is you." Yes, it's them. They came in, you gave them answers that were not satisfactory, that is why they went on stage, in silence, just to show their message, the message they're trying to convey to you for months. I wanted to reiterate this and reiterate the fact they're not alone. For months, thousands of young people are mobilizing throughout the world with the same voice. Société Générale does not answer. It's not just the future of the climate, the future of those young people that will be called into question.
It'll be your financial system that you are defending so ardently. I also have a question. When are you going to realize this context among the climate that I think will end up bringing Société Générale down to its knees, all of us down to our knees? Thank you.
Seven. [Foreign language] Stéphanie. I work in the global banking sector at Société Générale. I am speaking to you on behalf of the Association of Société Générale Employee Shareholders and Retired Employees to let you know that during the PACTE Law, our association has been trying to move forward the governance of Société Générale with representation of the employee shareholders. This change was voted by lawmakers and is supposed to be applied in 2021. Meanwhile, I'd like to come back to the share price. If we take a look at the fluctuations over 10 years, it is down, as we heard from Frédéric Oudéa. It has enabled us to withstand those shocks. If we look at the overall profitability of the share as of last 31 December, it was roughly 1% per year over that period. We can see this very negative environment.
You've called upon employees to invest in the group. There was a global plan. I have two questions. First of all, the global plan, is that simply a need to raise capital, or are you considering coming back to a policy of recurring operations of this type? In link with the first question, despite a decline in the past few years, employees today still hold roughly 6% of the share capital of the group. Do you have an objective in terms of the percentage of employee shareholding?
Last question, number 8.
Philippe Chaunert, individual shareholder. Good evening. Mr. Oudéa, you told us that Société Générale was investing substantially in Africa. Unfortunately, it's one of the last European banks, if not the only one. I'd like to commend you on that. I regret this situation.
I think what is even direr is the fact that, as you mentioned before, Europe is not integrated, particularly at the political level. Outside of France, throughout Europe, we can see they have withdrawn completely from Africa. If I see a risk there, it's not quite the same as that seen by Mr. Oudéa, meaning there will not be enough money in Africa. It's a country, a continent that has substantial needs. I think on the other side of Asia, there is a country that has a tremendous economic firepower that will be arriving soon in Africa. I'd like to point out all these young people who come to demonstrate here today, the Chinese will be there. Perhaps they don't know what liberty and democracy are there. There, there wouldn't be this type of demonstration.
I'd like to know if you could perhaps tell me what you think about this.
Perhaps I could let Philippe and Franck say a bit about what we do in Africa. Sir, I share your sentiment. It's true that we have China investing in Africa and elsewhere. One of the issues is for Europe to retain influence on that continent. To respond to the question that was asked, yes, of course, it's not a financial issue. We were supposed to do it in 2017. At the time, the dispute had not been settled. Legally, we're not allowed to carry out that increase in capital. We did so, of course, in an environment such that now that the dispute is behind us, we can do that afterward. The board would like to have a developed employee policy. We don't set a target. We look at it regularly. We do not have a
Aim in terms of the percentage of shareholding. Philippe, perhaps just speak a bit about Africa and LogiTel Net, perhaps the other Philippe. Thank you.
Just briefly as regards Africa. Thank you, Frédéric. I think it's interesting to spend some time on the other part of the group, 30% of our equity being invested in emerging countries. As you know, if you look at Eastern Europe, Africa, we have invested in Africa. It's a long-term commitment for almost a century. We started operations in Morocco. We are in 19 countries now in Northern Africa, Western Africa, Central Africa. This very important commitment enables us to be able to experience our growth of roughly 10%. Our ability to be able to capture this group to benefit from this African boom through the very swift demographic development as well as the penetration of banking services. We are contributing positively to development in Africa, to the prosperity of Africa, and to contribute to its stability. Africa's stability is also the stability of Europe. Just one figure.
Between now and 2050, there will be 500 million young Africans who will be coming into the labor market, who will be looking for opportunities. It is with this in mind that we, Société Générale, have become involved, and it's not just a business plan. As we heard earlier from Frédéric, we'd like to Grow with Africa to be able to ramp up our commitments in terms of infrastructure, financing, small and medium businesses, and financial inclusion. Last, we are primarily in French-speaking Africa for historic reasons. We have a partnership with Absa, which is a company that is part of Barclays, enabling us to be able to offer services throughout French-speaking, English-speaking Africa, in terms of the services offered to businesses. Regarding functionality of our app. It's true that the most sophisticated features are not available. The application is being incremented on a regular basis, depending on our priorities.
I can't tell you exactly where it lies in the order of priority. As you mentioned, there's always a possibility of turning to your branch. I'd like to go back quickly to the environment-related question. I hope that we can continue to have a rational, healthier debate about these questions. We don't claim to have answers to these complicated questions. Believe me, we are strongly committed, and we know how important this issue is, and we remain open to discussion, not only as a banker, but also as parents. I fully share what Frédéric Oudéa has just said. As parents, these accusations that have been leveled at us today are accusations that we do not share.
At the Board of Directors, we've put a lot of thought into these issues. It's really about transition and how quickly this transition can come about. That's what we're going to continue to focus on. To say that we do not hear your requests and your demands is something I disagree with.
Thank you very much for this discussion. Thank you for keeping your questions brief. Now let's move on to the resolutions. I'm going to hand over the floor to Patrick Suet, who is going to remind us of each of these resolutions that you are asked to vote on.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, the full text and wording of the resolutions is in the registration documents. I'm not going to go over that. Do use your tablets to vote, and when you've made your choice, do validate. The results will come up on the screen, resolution after resolution. Before we start the vote, the quorum is at 54.506%, making up EUR 431,769,000, some 20,000 shareholders, some of which are present in the room. We're going to start voting on the resolution. The first resolution is here up on the screen.
Approval of the consolidated accounts for 2018 financial year. The vote is open. The vote is closed. Resolution is adopted, 99.56%. Second resolution, approval of the annual accounts for the 2018 financial year. The vote is open. Don't forget to validate your vote. The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted at 99.62%. Third resolution, allocation of the 2018 income setting of the dividend, EUR 2.20 per share. It will be paid out on the 27th of May, or on the 14th of June, rather, sorry. Detached on the 27th of May. The vote is open. Don't forget to validate your vote. The vote is closed. Resolution is adopted at 98.95%. Fourth resolution, option for the payment of the dividend in new shares. The option will be triggered from the 27th of May to the 7th of June. The discount of 10% and it's at EUR 27.31. The vote is closed.
The resolution is adopted at 98.17%. Resolution number 5, renewal of Mr. Frédéric Oudéa as director for a four-year mandate. The vote is open. Don't forget to validate. The vote is closed. Mr. Oudéa's mandate is renewed with 96.22%. Sixth resolution, renewal for Ms. Kyra Hazou as a director for a four-year mandate. The vote is open. Don't forget to validate. The vote is closed. Ms. Hazou, her mandate is renewed with 97.63% of the votes. Renewal now of Mr. Gérard Mestrallet as director for a four-year mandate. The vote is open. Don't forget to validate your vote. The vote is closed. Mr. Mestrallet's mandate is renewed with 97.24% of the votes. Now, moving on to related party agreements and commitments previously approved. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted with 70.77% of votes.
Related party agreement and commitment for the benefits of Mr. Frédéric Oudéa. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted with 68.13% of votes. 10th resolution, related party agreement and commitments for the benefit of Mr. Séverin Cabannes. Mr. Jean-Bernard Lévy mentioned it earlier in great detail. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted with 68.2% of votes. 11th resolution, related party agreements and commitments for the benefit of Mr. Philippe Aymerich. The vote is open. Don't forget to validate your vote. The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted with 68.30% of votes. 12th resolution, related party agreements and commitments for the benefit of Mr. Philippe Heim. Vote is open. Don't forget to validate. Don't forget to validate your vote. The vote is closed. The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted with 68.19% of votes.
13th resolution, related party agreements and commitments for the benefit of Ms. Diony Lebot. The vote is open. Don't forget to validate your vote. The vote is closed. The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted with 68.19% of votes. 14th resolution, approval of the compensation policy for the Chairman of the Board of Directors pursuant to Article L. 225-37-2 of the French Commercial Code. The vote is open. Don't forget to validate your vote. The vote is closed. The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted with 95.03% of votes. Approval of the compensation policy for the Chief Executive Officer and the Deputy Chief Executive Officers. The vote is open. Don't forget to validate. The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted with 95.12% of votes. 16th resolution, approval of the components composing the total compensation of Mr. Lorenzo Bini Smaghi for the 2018 financial year.
The vote is open. Don't forget to validate. The vote is closed. The vote is now closed. The resolution is adopted with 94.91% of votes. 17th resolution, approval of the components composing the compensation of Mr. Frédéric Oudéa for 2018. The vote is open. Don't forget to validate your vote. The vote is closed. The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted with 91.76% of votes. 18th resolution, approval of the compensation paid or awarded to Mr. Philippe Aymerich for 2018. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The vote is closed. Resolution is adopted with 92.12% of votes. 19th resolution, approval of the components composing the total compensation of Mr. Séverin Cabannes for 2018. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The vote is closed. The resolution is approved with 91.8% of votes.
20th resolution, approval of the components composing the total compensation paid or awarded to Mr. Philippe Heim for financial year 2018. The vote is open. Don't forget to validate your vote. The vote is closed. The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted with 92% of votes. Approval of the components composing the total compensation paid or awarded to Ms. Diony Lebot for financial year 2018. The vote is open. Don't forget to validate your vote. The vote is closed. The vote is closed. Resolution is approved with 92.02% of votes. 22nd resolution, approval of the components composing the total compensation paid or awarded to Mr. Bernardo Sanchez Incera. The vote is open. Don't forget to validate your vote. The vote is closed. The resolution is approved with 70.13% of votes. 23rd resolution, approval of the components composing the total compensation paid or awarded to Mr. Didier Vallet for 2018.
The vote is open. Don't forget to validate. The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted with 96.50% of votes. 24th resolution, the rosy opinion on the compensation paid in 2018 to the regulated persons. Mr. Lévy mentioned it in detail earlier. The vote is open. Don't forget to validate your vote. The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted with 97.43% of votes. 25th resolution, authorization granted to the board of directors to trade companies' ordinary shares up to a limit of 5% of the share capital. Of course, in keeping with the prudential standards. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted with 98% of votes. 26th and last resolution, powers for formalities. The vote is open. Don't forget to validate your vote. The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted with 99.62% of votes.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so very much for your trust. The question didn't come up, the next General Assembly will take place on the 19th of May 2020. Thank you very much and have a pleasant evening, don't forget to pick up your present on the way out. Thank you very much.