I am delighted to welcome you to this year's annual general meeting. It's a very important moment for the company and for shareholders. For the first reason, of course, is the management transition. As announced last year, Frédéric Oudéa shall be finishing his term of office as CEO. If you follow the board's recommendations, Slawomir Krupa will be replacing him. Of course, a highly emotional moment because a new generation is taking over. The second reason is the group's strategic transformation in 2022 and 2023. Let me evoke the Crédit du Nord Société Générale merger, which has now become reality. The acquisition of LeasePlan by ALD, creating a global mobility leader. The acquisition of AllianceBernstein, which will be a global leader in market research. Boursorama, which has reached 5 million customers, and in 2022, a withdrawal from Russia.
Third reason, the economic and monetary circumstances. Since 2022, the central banks have deeply modified the interest rate environment. Economic prospects have, in a sense, become darker with resilient underlying inflation. In the United States, confidencef in the banking system went through a number of upheavals. Then, of course, there are the challenges of climate change and the climate transition, the energy transition. It's against this background, we're organizing this AGM to evidence the robustness of Société Générale's model and its renewed strategic ambitions. It is now time to open this ordinary and extraordinary general assembly, as published in the Bulletin des annonces légales obligatoires et Les Petites Affiches on April 17th, 2023.
The original quorum is 53.41%, 413,942,477 shares, i.e., 25,000 shareholders who are entitled to vote, which is higher than the required quorum, which is one quarter. The assembly is therefore entitled to vote on the various resolutions. All written questions and answers are available on the AGM's website. More about that in a moment. Around me here on stage to answer your questions are Frédéric Oudéa, Chief Executive Officer, Diony Lebot , Deputy, and Philippe Aymerich, Deputy CEOs, whose term of office ends today. First of all, we shall discuss the results with Claire Dumas, CFO, then discuss the strategy with Frédéric Oudéa, CEO. A specific point will be dedicated to CSR, to the energy transition with Diony Lebot and Jean-Bernard Lévy.
Corporate governance with Gérard Mestrallet, whose term of office is also ending today, and myself. Also a focus on compensation and benefits with the adequate committee. Then we shall have a debate and vote on the various resolutions. We can now assemble as overseers the two persons who have accepted that, or under a power of attorney, Mr. Mikael Presswitz, representative of BNP Paribas Asset Management, and Mr. Jordi Dubrulle, representing Amundi. I'd like to thank them warmly for having agreed to this. I propose that as Secretary of this assembly, Patrick Suet, Secretary of the Board of Directors, will be appointed. The auditors were convened in accordance with legal and regulatory procedures, namely Mr. Micha Missakian from Ernst & Young and Jean-Marc Mickeler from Deloitte.
Finally, I have in my presence the usual documents on the desk, a list of which is displayed on screen. Let me add that the documents and legal information prior to this meeting were put on the website in a regular manner and made available to the shareholders, either online or at the corporate offices of Société Générale. These debates are streamed live on the Internet and will be accessible later on the Internet. Proceedings can also be followed by phone. We have conducted, as usual, a survey of our shareholders. It shows your keen interest in the results
The strategy and the dividends. Risk management are the topics, appointment of management, CSR, and new governance. All of these issues will be discussed today, and you will have plenty of opportunities to debate. For the proper organization of our debates, I would like to point out that employees are at the entrance of this room to answer any questions you may have as customers. If you have personal questions about your bank account or relationship with the bank, you can talk to our employees at the entrance of this room. Although this assembly is being broadcast on the internet, we shall not be broadcasting any images of any attendees, including those who will be asking questions. It now remains me to yield the floor to Claire Dumas, Chief Financial Officer, who will present the results for the year 2022. Claire.
There are no music, nothing?
No jingle.
I thought there would be a transition.
I thought there would be a musical transition. I was waiting for it.
ladies and gentlemen, bonjour.
Ladies and gentlemen.
I would propose, in a first time, to come back to the financial results for the year 2022.
I would first like to review the financial results for the year 2022, and then briefly comment the results for Q1 2023, which were posted on May 12.
As illustrated by this slide, the Group BNP Paribas had, in 2022, a solid underlying net income of EUR 5.6 billion.
As you can see on this slide, the group published, a strong underlying net income of EUR 5.6 billion, equivalent to underlying profitability, ROTE of 9.6%.
The reported net income was EUR 2 billion.
The reported net income reached EUR 2 billion due to financial impact of the disposal of the Russian business. After the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the group decided to do so in an orderly manner within a few weeks. This meant that Q2 2022 suffered a negative impact of around EUR 3.3 billion, restated from the underlying result. The capital impact of the disposal remained contained at 20 basis points. The good performance of the underlying results is explained by a very good momentum in the business lines, with revenues up 9.3% versus 2021 at EUR 28.1 billion.
The group continued to be disciplined in its financial management.
At the same time, the group continued to be disciplined in its cost management, resulting in an underlying gross operating income of over EUR 10 billion.
The cost-income ratio, excluding the contribution of the FRU.
The cost-income ratio, excluding the contribution to the FRU, the Fonds de Résolution Unique, was 61% below the initial guidance provided in late 2021 for 2022, which was anticipated to be between 66% and 68%. Cost of risk also remained low at 28 basis points despite the impact of the Ukraine war on the Russian portfolio, which is under the indicative level provided in 2021 for 2022, which was between 30 and 35 basis points. The load of risk is due to low load of fault rate, 17 basis points, which evidences the quality of assets in the portfolio, and a very prudent provisioning policy which led the group to increase its stock of provisions, which reached EUR 3.8 billion.
Strong from these results, the Board of Directors has decided to propose to the approval of the general meeting a total distribution of approximately EUR 2.25 per share.
The Board of Directors has decided to propose a total distribution of approximately EUR 2.25 per share, which breakdown as follow. A cash dividend of EUR 1.7 versus EUR 1.65 in 2021, and a share buyback program for approximately EUR 440 million, equivalent to approximately EUR 0.55 per share based on the number of ordinary shares. This recourse to share buyback is a very common practice in the banking sector because it allows shareholders to benefit from its relutive effect. The group's capital ratio was 13.5% at December 31st, i.e., 420 basis points above regulatory requirements. If we now move on to the next slide, you have a overview, a dynamic overview of the evolution of aggregates.
As I just said, the very good underlying performance for 2022 was primarily due to an excellent contribution of the business lines, evidencing the quality of the group's portfolio and franchises. Financing and advisory, and market activities posted record performance with revenues of over EUR 10 billion, up 14%. This excellent contribution is evidence of the relevance of the strategy started in 2020 with the repositioning of the market activities and investments in financing, advisory, and transaction banking. ALD also reached an all-time high, up by more than 40% versus 2021, driven by strong commercial momentum and continued strong demand for used vehicles. International retail banking and private banking also performed very well with, in both cases, double-digit growth.
Finally, despite the initial effects, the specificities of the French domestic market on the net interest margin, French retail banking business posted satisfactory revenues in parallel with the completion of preparatory work for the merger of Société Générale and Crédit du Nord. Therefore, at constant scope, revenues were up more than 9% versus 2021. Costs were only up by 4.5%, and the cost-income ratio, excluding contribution to the FRU, was down from 69% in 2019 to 64.4% in 2021, and only 61% for 2022. This was of course reflected by a very strong increase of earnings. Underlying group's operating income, EUR 10.1 billion in 2022, up 19% versus 2021 and 40% versus 2019.
Let's now look at the results for Q1 2023. Again, robust results in Q1. The net underlying income was EUR 1.5 billion, equivalent to an underlying ROCE of 10.7%. On a published base, net income was EUR 868 million, up 5.7% compared to Q1 2022. As of 2022, the performance resulted from dynamic revenues from the business lines, slightly up versus 2022 at constant scope and exchange rate. 2023 will be a transition year for retail banking in France. The interest margin is temporarily impacted by the end of the TLTRO and the specificities of the French domestic market, the Livret A interest rate, and the rate of usury.
There was also a strong growth of ALD, of international retail and banking, and Boursorama, and again, repeated great success in banking and wealth management. Despite the inflation, costs remain under control through the pursuit of a very highly disciplined cost control within the group and a lower contribution to the FRU fund. Excluding the FRU, the cost-income ratio is 60.5% below the target, which was 66%-68% as stated for this year. In line with 2022, the cost of risk remains low at 13 basis points over the quarter, with limited defaults and no significant deterioration of the portfolio. This led the group to review downwards its annual forecast for the cost of risk, which are now set at less than 30 basis points for 2023.
Finally, the tier one capital ratio at 13.5% at March 31st remains more than 400 basis points above regulatory requirements. In terms of cash, the group has a granular deposits basis that is healthy and diversified, up 0.7% since Q4 2022. The short-term liquidity ratio, so-called LCR, has strengthened at 171% in March versus 141% at Q4 2022, thanks to high liquidity reserves, almost EUR 300 billion, around 1/3 of the funded the group's finance balance sheet, and a financing program, which has made great progress of more than 70%. Société Générale can therefore leverage a robust balance sheet and great liquidity profile. Now over to Micha Missakian on behalf of the auditors.
Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the auditors, I would like to discuss the consolidated and annual accounts as presented in the document you were handed. The essential purpose of our mission is to obtain reasonable assurance about the regularity, sincerity, and loyal picture presented by the accounts and the absence of. Therefore, we certify the accounts presented to the board. There are a few key points in the report. The risk, the significant anomaly risk, which according to our professional appraisal were the most important in the audit. The key points in the audit, consolidated accounts and the individual accounts are the evaluation of depreciations on customer credits, the recoverable nature of taxation in France, the risk of regulatory, legal, or arbitration, the valuation of complex financial instruments, IT risk connected to market activities.
Key points in the audit for the consolidated accounts are namely the coverage of fair value based on the portfolio of retail banking in France, assessments of acquisition gaps and reevaluation of the residual value of leased vehicles. Key point in the audit on individual accounts, the evaluation of participation and participations and stakes in assorted companies. We have no further observations on the sincerity and consistency with the consolidated accounts and for the individual accounts. We have no further comments to be made based on legal requirements, notably for other information communicated to the shareholders, namely the report about corporate governance and the management report. Briefly, our special report about the regulated conventions for the fiscal year 2022.
We must communicate based on information provided to us, the characteristics and essential modalities and motives guaranteeing the interest of your company of the conventions we may have discovered or been informed about, without needing to state an opinion about their validity or about their or about the opportunity. We obtained no opinion over the previous fiscal year or no other information about conventions that would have been entered into previously. Thank you for your attention.
We'll now move on to strategy, I will now give the floor to Frédéric Oudéa.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, I'm very happy to be with you here today. This is a very touching moment for me as this is my last general meeting as Chief Executive Officer of Société Générale. Before starting my presentation and making with you a quick assessment of my 15 years, and in particular this last year, I would like to thank you for the confidence and support that you have kindly granted me throughout these years. I must admit that 15 very intense year in an environment marked by profound disruption, many large-scale crises have punctuated my mandate.
The Kerviel crisis and the financial crisis in 2008, the Greek debt crisis first, and then more generally, the European sovereign debt in 2011, Brexit in 2016, COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, the outbreak of the war in Ukraine in 2022, which is still going on today. More structural changes have also occurred. On the regulatory front with Basel III regulations, the establishment of the banking union in 2014, and the so-called Basel IV rules about to be implemented, and the more global strengthening of requirements in the various compliance areas. Clearly, the rules of the game have changed entirely, if I may say so, between now and the start of my term of office.
Secondly, on the technological front, with the phenomenal progress in connectivity, the emergence of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, and the subsequent development of new uses and consumption of banking services. Lastly, thirdly, from a social and environmental standpoint, with the amplification of climate change, the strengthening of protest movements, and the collective awareness of the need to build more ecological and inclusive development models. All throughout my term of office, I have sought to bring the group into this new world, managing emergency situations, of course, but always putting the long-term interest of our company first without compromising my values and my convictions. This was done in three stages.
The first period, from 2008 to 2011, 2012, was the time of the management of systemic and specific crises and their impact on the banking sector, and more specifically on our bank. A second period from 2012 to 2019, which was, on the one hand, the time of remediation with adaptation to new regulatory framework and the settlement of our disputes, and also the time to look to the future with the launch of strategic thinking on each of our major businesses. It was in particular during this period that we refocused our business portfolio, decided to accelerate the development of Boursorama to make it the champion of online banking in France.
We floated ALD on the stock market to give it the means to consolidate a fragmented market in order to make it a world leader in the responsible mobility sector. The third period, from 2020 to 2023, marked by the return of unprecedented crises, but also by the realization of our ambitions and our strategic differentiation. First of all, the emergence of a unique retail banking model in France. In 2022, we first took decisive steps in the project to merge the Société Générale and Crédit du Nord networks.
This enabled us to complete, as planned, the legal merger on January 1, 2023, and to launch a new retail bank in France under the SG brand. It also allowed us to successfully complete the migration of the Crédit du Nord banks to the Société Générale IT system, with the second and last IT migration successfully completed on 13 and 14th May last. To help you to better understand the stakes and the contours of this project, I suggest that we should take a pause and watch a video together. There is nothing comparable in terms of complexity in France or even the banking industry, and we are all key players in this success. We can clearly say that this migration was a success. It was done in less than 48 hours. The quality of data migration was exceptional, opening up once again all services on Monday morning.
It's a human adventure. It is only possible by combining talents, skills, with the wish to do things together. This is the alchemy which is the most wonderful thing to look at. As you can see, a project of considerable scope. A project of considerable scope and requirement, as you've seen, which has been perfectly executed. I would like to commend Sébastien Proto and all the teams which contributed to it since its launch in October 2020. We continue to accelerate the growth of Boursorama, in particular through the partnership agreement with ING. Boursorama won a record number of customers in 2022 with 1.5 million new customers. With 5 million individual customers today, Boursorama is the undisputed leader in online banking in France and still has considerable potential for profitable growth.
It's a real bank with a balance sheet of EUR 65 billion offering all online banking services. I'm ready to bet with you that Boursorama will have 8-10 million customers in France within a few years, and will be a major contributor to the group's financial results with a very good profitability. The group now has a unique offering in the French retail banking market with, on the one hand, SG, a bank that is close to the regions with 10 million customers, including companies, merchants, self-employed entrepreneurs, and individuals, offering the best mix of human expertise and the power of digital technology. On the other hand, Boursorama, a 100% online bank, leads in its market, the cheapest bank, and with a very high level of customer satisfaction. This offer is very complementary with the real potential for growth and differentiation.
Of course, there is still a lot of work to be done to fully deploy the business model and reap the full benefits of developments on the way. Secondly, realizing our ambitions in sustainable mobility, we announced at the start of 2022 the proposed acquisition of LeasePlan by ALD, which is the largest acquisition in the group's history. We finalized it yesterday after having obtained all the necessary regulatory approvals and secured financing. I would like to welcome all the employees of LeasePlan who are thus joining Société Générale group. We'll be able to start the integration phase, taking advantage of all the synergies and complementarities between these two companies, and build this world leader in sustainable mobility, capable of driving the transformation of the sector we have long dreamt of.
This company now manages 3.3 million vehicles and will support both corporate and individual customers in the profound transformation of the mobility sector. I'm thinking in particular of the change in usage from ownership to use of cars and the shift from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles. ALD LeasePlan over the next 15 years has tremendous prospects for profitable growth and can establish itself as one of the reference ESG stocks on the European market. Thirdly, realizing our ambitions in corporate banking and investor solutions. We announced last November the signature of a letter of intent with AllianceBernstein, confirming our joint project to combine our respective equity research and cash equity activities within a joint venture called Bernstein. This operation is to the credit of Slawomir Krupa, who initiated it and has been working on it for two years.
He will be in charge of finalizing it. We are moving forward with determination on this project, which, if successful, will create an undisputed leader in the entire equity business, broadening the value proposal for our issuer and investor clients. More broadly speaking, I'd like to emphasize the remarkable and recurring performance of our corporate banking and investor solutions activities over the past three years. This is the result of the model adjustments we have made in recent years. At the same time as all these strategic and structuring moves, we are now exiting in an orderly fashion from all our activities in Russia. This exit had a significant cost, as you may have seen in our results for 2022, but a very moderate impact in terms of capital, which in no way handicaps the future of our group.
I believe that this was the right decision in view of the growing uncertainty about the outcome of this war and the risks of all kinds that maintaining our presence could have entailed. Moreover, it was perfectly well-executed. To conclude on the strategic aspect, and also bearing in mind the profound and more organic transformations of our other international retail banking, insurance, and financial services businesses, which delivered remarkable performance in recent years, we have laid the foundation for profound renewal of our business model. We have embarked upon a number of differentiating and value-creating projects that will, I believe, enable the group to achieve its profitability goals. This took time, but I am convinced that nothing solid and sustainable can be built in a few quarters in the banking business. I remain lucid, and there's clearly still a lot to do.
Firstly, to complete each of these projects in order to reap the full benefits, but also accelerate our digital transformation and operational efficiency improvement initiatives, and to commit the bank and its ecosystem even more intensely to the climate transition. We are only at the beginning of technological and digital transformations, as well as transformations related to social and environmental responsibilities. They will be a strategic thread running through the next 10 years. They will require us to continue to develop and deploy breakthrough business models. We are perfectly capable of doing this. Boursorama and ALD LeasePlan are perfect examples, and I know that Slawomir Krupa, my successor, and his new management team have all the motivation and energy to meet these new challenges. Let us now take a look at the financial picture over the past 15 years.
Contrary to what I sometimes hear, the bank has not stopped growing. The group's revenues grew by +33% between 2008 and 2022, despite adjustments made to our business portfolios. Thanks to good cost discipline, the cost-income ratio improved significantly from 71% at the end of 2008 to 61% if the neutral contribution to the Single Resolution Fund is neutralized. We also benefit from the discipline of origination, with a low cost of risk and considerably higher ex ante provisions. I would remind you that at the end of March 2023, we had nearly EUR 4 billion in provisions on outstandings. As a result, in 2021 and 2022, we delivered the best operational and financial results in the history of the group.
If we set aside, of course, for 2022, the one-off impact of the exit from Russia. The bank's balance sheet has also strengthened considerably since 2008. Our solvency and liquidity ratios have more than doubled over the period. The bank is now in good shape with a core tier one ratio of 13.5% and liquidity reserves, as Claire said, of almost EUR 300 billion, including more than EUR 210 billion in cash. Now, in this context, tangible net assets per share increased from EUR 38.3 per share in 2009, the first published figure, to EUR 62.3 per share at the end of 2022. Undoubtedly, there is a lot more money in the coffers, if I may say so.
Despite all this performance, Société Générale stock remains discounted and subject to volatility. This is a frustration for me and for you. The markets are not yet convinced of the intrinsic value of our business model and the potential of our assets. I see several reasons for this, beyond the fact that investors, who have often burned their wings in the last 50 years in the European banking sector, are above all looking for maximum short-term visibility and a return in the form of capital distribution. The first reason, the weight of our market activities. We are the European-listed bank with the largest exposure to market activities. I admit it, I did not want to take decisions to reduce these activities which over the long term would have been detrimental for our future. Second reason, the retail banking market in France is not the most attractive in Europe.
It is very protective for customers, much less so for shareholders, well, compared to other European markets anyway. Here, too, we are the European-listed bank with the highest proportion of revenues coming from this market. I remind you that there are very few listed banks in France. Lastly, the third reason, the need to extend the good track record of the past three years to fully reassure on our disciplined execution and our ability to have a smooth financial track record without any bad surprises. I am convinced that this discount will be reduced over the next two to three years if the group successfully completes its current strategic initiatives and continues on a solid, recurring, and predictable earnings trajectory by achieving its profit, profitability targets. The last topic I'd like to discuss with you today is group culture.
Throughout my tenure, I sought to strengthen the culture of our company to make it more innovative, more responsible, and more mindful of the sustainable satisfaction of our customers in line with expectations of supervisors and regulators by building on the values of commitment and team spirit that we hold dear. I did this by making sure to embody this culture myself by leading, deciding, and acting with integrity, by giving the utmost respect to each employee, and by measuring the value of their contribution, by giving them the right to express themselves without fear or dread, and by creating a culture of transparency and fairness, by serving without ever serving myself with the frugality required in these times of crisis. The many testimonies I have received in recent weeks from our customers, employees, and partners give me hope that this healthy culture has deeply permeated our group.
This culture is an asset for our company and an indispensable condition for its future success. It fosters indeed the trust of our stakeholders who are so precious in our industry. To conclude, I have experienced an extraordinary human adventure at the head of Société Générale Group, which has been both a heavy responsibility and a great honor. We have been through difficult and demanding times with many challenges, we have come together to achieve great success together. As a result, we have given the group the means to hold a prominent place in the economy and to look towards the future. I'd like to thank our clients for their trust and loyalty. It has been an honor to serve them on a daily basis, a pride to contribute to the success of their projects. I'd like to thank all our shareholders for their trust throughout these years.
I would like to thank all the employees of Société Générale for their remarkable work, their resilience, and their desire to undertake, which is constantly renewed. You have my full appreciation, and I express both my admiration and all my affection. I would particularly like to thank my successive deputy general managers and my executive committee for their unfailing support and their invaluable contributions. You know how much I value each and every one of you. Finally, I'd like to thank the Board of Directors and the chairman, Lorenzo, for his trust. I would like to highlight the exemplary and calm succession process in the interest of our company. I'm pleased that an internal candidate has been selected. Slawomir, in whom I hope you will place your trust, is an experienced banker, very much attached to the group and with strong international experience.
He has all the skills needed to manage our company and continue its virtuous path. The orderly transition process enabled the company to prepare and organize his new management team. He will therefore be able to start without wasting any time and extend the transformations underway while proposing to the board the new strategic directions that he deems necessary in a world that will remain uncertain and difficult. I wish him and the new management team every success in this new mission. As far as I'm concerned, I leave with a mixture of emotion, humility, and gratitude, with a feeling of having accomplished my duty and of having given my best to Société Générale. Thank you for your attention.
Merci, Frédéric. Diony Lebot.
Thank you, Frédéric. Diony Lebot will now tell us about the CSR strategy. It's a special item in the agenda, in keeping with the AMF's recommendations. Jean-Bernard Lévy, who's also in charge of an assignment over the issue, will state his opinion.
Greetings to all. Société Générale's CSR ambition is to encourage the environmental transition while developing our local positive impact through a strategy deployed across the group. I will talk about the actions we've implemented, we'll document a few examples through a short film illustrating the way we support our customers on a daily basis. In the face of the environmental and social urgency, we're accelerating the implementation of our CSR ambition, as presented last year. It is built around four strategic pillars. First pillar, the environmental transition. Our objective is to support all our customers in their transition with innovative solutions to meet their new needs. Second pillar, the development of communities. It's at the very heart of our action in the field. Every day, we work with those who have projects, we support positive transformation, both social and economically, in local communities.
Third, we have a responsibility as an employer. We foster working environments that are attractive, inclusive and engaging, we manage the employment and career development of our employees responsibly. Fourth pillar, our culture of responsibility. As such, we maintain the highest standards of governance, we ensure full compliance with regulations, we act in accordance with our corporate purpose, which reflects our values and guides our actions. Our CSR ambition is thus fully aligned with our corporate purpose to build, together with our customers, more environmental and inclusive development models by providing responsible and innovative financial solutions. In 2022, we made our transition towards a more sober and inclusive economy. We've contributed to sustainable finance, EUR 300 billion between 2022 and 2025. We've already exceeded EUR 100 billion at the end of 2022.
All of our business lines are involved in developing our positive impact on local communities. We support and facilitate access to renewable energy. As a pioneering bank in this field, a great number of projects have been dedicated to this. We are involved in sustainable mobility with charging infrastructure and the electrification of vehicle fleets through ALD, our subsidiary. We are developing our positive local impact by facilitating access to healthcare or supporting local communities. The creation of the new SG bank in France, with a presence in 11 regions, is a perfect reflection of our commitment to strengthen our positive impact for our clients. To transform this bank, we have initiated an ambitious CSR plan called Building together. We have built a major training plan for all of our employees.
65% of them have already completed ESG training. More than 10,000 people have taken part in the Climate Fresk. This plan includes setting ESG targets for a large circle of managers or implementing incentive schemes to encourage the origination of sustainable financing. The bank now has significant resources to ensure the success of its transformation plan and has also launched a program called ESG by Design to operationalize the transformation. This program allows the deployment of methods and tools to build in ESG, to build it into the group's operational processes, and to meet the ECB's regulatory requirements. Let me now briefly focus on our climate strategy and the progress we have made. The environmental transition is a complex subject. We are convinced that it requires concerted and collective approaches. It is a huge challenge, both in terms of climate, the economy, social and technological.
By trying to reconcile short-term issues with a proactive long-term vision, we are confirming the climate ambitions set for ourselves through three priorities. 1. Support our clients in their environmental transition. 2. Manage the risk associated with climate change. 3. Manage the impacts of our own activity on the climate. First priority, supporting our customers in their transition. Companies who are engaged in transition are facing investment needs that are unprecedented. Several EUR billion a year over many years. We provide individualized support to our clients. For large corporates, we have a range of solutions in sustainable finance. We have initiated a program to review our mandate, to work with each individual sector, to help with decarbonization. More than 400 employees take part in developing a holistic approach that considers the entire value chain of our customers.
This sectoral experience of our teams is a major asset to provide innovative solutions that are tailored to each sector. For our SME customers, we have expert advice that can be provided with specific systems such as environmental and social loans with dedicated customer paths. For our household private individual customers, we can help them with funding, energy renovation work on their homes or the acquisition of an electric vehicle. We are also working on innovation to build an innovation ecosystem that addresses our customers' needs. Second priority, managing the risks associated with climate change. Both the physical risks that have an impact on the assets we finance, but also the transition risks endured by our customers.
We are strengthening our climate risk management team with an improvement of assessment tools, to the exposure to transition risk for a client, an economic sector or a country, and the consolidation of our stress test system. Third priority, managing the impact of our own activities on the climate. Within the group, we have initiated a proactive approach to reduce our emissions. We have set as a target a 50% reduction between 2019 and 2030 by acting on the energy we require for our offices, for our IT, for our travel, be it by air or by car. In 2022, we reduced our own emissions by 35% versus 2019, in line with our target.
With regard to indirect emissions, namely those of the customers we finance and which are most, the origin of most emissions assigned to banks, we are resolutely committed to decarbonizing our financing portfolio. We have goals under the U.N. Net- Zero Banking Alliance. We've accelerated the alignment of our credit portfolios with strong focus on the energy sector, we have set new intermediate targets. Reduction of our exposure in 2025 versus 2019, our exposure to oil and gas production. Previous target was - 10%. A 30% cut by 2030 versus 2019 in absolute carbon emissions from oil and gas production and end use. For the power generation sector, a reduction of carbon intensity to 125 g of CO2 per kilowatt hour in 2030.
The target was further strengthened in 2022 from 163 g per kilowatt hour in 2030. In the coming months, we will continue to work on these targets and set up new goals that will be made public, notably in the field of public transport, real estate and construction. We're also strengthening our sectoral policies with commitments to help to preserve biodiversity as signatories of the act4nature alliance and through our participation in international initiatives such as Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, TNFD or Biodiversity Pledge. I would like to tell you how much at every level of the group's governance these issues are fully embraced. In the Board of Directors, of course, we have renewed Jean-Bernard Lévy's position this year, over to him in a moment, and extended all of that to CSR as a whole.
Top management has also made this a priority area for action, and as I am about to hand over to the new management team, I remain persuaded that CSR will remain at the very heart of our strategy because I know how deeply committed Slawomir Krupa and his team are committed to ensuring that it is built into everything we do. CSR will remain at the very heart of our purpose and our banking business. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Diony, for your commitment throughout all of these years. Now over to Jean-Bernard Lévy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would also like to thank Diony and greet all of the shareholders here. I have been entrusted with a mission in the field of CSR, and my mission is to assure you that we are fully embracing this within the bank. After the Paris Accord, at the COP21, Société Générale became very much involved in environmental issues with a focus on the carbon footprint of its financing and sectoral policies to work on the environmental and social impact of its business. The bank laid out a number of figures and targets for high-emission sectors such as coal or oil and gas production. It also placed a ceiling on the carbon intensity of ALD vehicles and its financing related to power generation.
The target figures for production of coal, oil and gas were further strengthened in 2022, and the bank is preparing for further cuts for the most emission-intensive sectors such as transportation, real estate, and steel. For its own activity, Société Générale has committed to reducing its CO2 emissions by 50%, you have just seen, between 2019 and 2030. The bank can leverage a specific governance implying involving the Board of Directors, general management, and all of the business lines. Since the start of 2023, the Board of Directors has strengthened the system. The CSR strategy is decided by the Board of Directors based on a proposal from general management, reviewed by the Board's ad hoc committees, and I attend each of these committee meetings when CSR is on the table.
CSR must involve everyone who works for the bank. A major transformation program has been initiated based on a proactive training policy. This program is complemented by the ESG by Design project, including many operational implications. CSR is a vast undertaking, and the transformation will continue. The sectoral alignment policy and its extension to all industrial sectors and to the main service activities will be continued. However, understanding climate risk remains a very difficult task. Regulations and the definition of key indicators have not yet been stabilized, while the banking sector is trying to organize itself to meet the needs of public opinion and regulators. The bank's positioning on CSR issues is a major strategic challenge with risks and opportunities. I believe it is an asset for the bank in terms of differentiation vis-à-vis the stakeholders, namely customers, shareholders, and current and future talents it employs.
Thank you for your attention.
Thank you, Jean-Bernard. We're now going to proceed with a focus on corporate governance. In the universal registration document on page 69 et al, you have a report about corporate governance. You will find details of the board's committee work report as well as the report by the Chairman. In 2022, the Board of Directors convened 18 times with 97% attendance, not taking into account committee meetings, non-executive director meetings, and time dedicated to the strategic seminar. A lot of time was dedicated to strategy to the Crédit du Nord Société Générale merger, to ALD's plan, to Russia, and to the project with AllianceBernstein. The Board of Directors also approved the bank's CSR strategy and approved its non-financial performance declaration.
It decided that the CSR strategy would remain purely under the remit of the board, that the committees would prepare work in keeping with their own competence, and that the Censeur, his role would be extended to the entire CSR in cooperation with the general management. You will find in the universal registration document, page 104, a summary of the evaluation of the board's proceedings. It's very positive, both in terms of composition and in the quality of its proceedings. This research was conducted by an independent consulting firm. We also made sure that the education of board members in terms of accounts, accounting rules, of cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, compliance, particularly anti-money laundering, and of naturally CSR.
As regards to my own personal role, I was actively involved in contacts with the regulators and met with international shareholders and investors, notably in preparing for this meeting. I must now tell you how the board proceeded in order to suggest Slawomir Krupa as the successor for Frédéric Oudéa. Consultation was initiated in late 2022 with assistance from an independent consultancy firm. I worked on this with Gérard Mestrallet and the appointment committee and corporate governance. Non-voting directors participated in this. Once a profile was defined, research was conducted both in-house and externally, both in France and elsewhere. In September, 2 candidates were selected, the appointments committee made a proposal approved unanimously by the Board of Directors.
The two final candidates both originated from within the group, illustrating and evidencing the great quality of the men and women who work for us. Since September, under Frédéric Oudéa's authority, the transition ran as smoothly as possible, and Slawomir Krupa constituted his own team, selected his deputy general managers, deputy CEOs, and announced the composition of his future executive committee. Beyond the man, it's a team that the Board of Directors proposes that you support by approving the resolution appointing Slawomir Krupa as director. Now is the time for him to introduce himself. Slawomir, you have the floor.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, many thanks for attending today, and I would warmly like to thank Lorenzo and all directors of our group, and particularly the Appointments and Corporate Governance Committee and its chairman, Gérard Mestrallet, for the trust they're placing in me.
Throughout the process, they have listened to my presentations of the future prospects that I wish, that I have the ambition for Société Générale, the outline of my future action. After this rigorous succession process, I therefore soliciting, dear shareholders, a vote of confidence to be elected as a director of the group in order to then become chief executive officer. I am fully aware of the honor and responsibility that come with this appointment. I am the man of a single bank, Société Générale. I have dedicated almost my entire professional life to this bank. I joined almost 27 years ago, at age 22, first at the Inspection Générale, where I worked across many business lines on every continent.
I developed the financing and advisory business with our major corporate accounts before heading, as you know, our investment banking business in the U.S., and since January 21, the investor solutions and corporate banking as deputy general manager. Société Générale has driven my professional career, and it is particularly meaningful because I tend to believe, and I know that a great many of us do in this room, that our bank has a soul that makes it different from any other. Different for its 117,000 employees and 25 million customers, and that is something I wish to replicate with all my teams. Before me, of course, many leaders for the past 150 years have with great talent and dedication, helped to build this bank.
I feel that I fit into this very long chain, as will do all of those who will follow us. I am now ready to take over from Frédéric. As the board said, the board gave itself enough time to ensure a seamless transition. I'm also proposing an excellent team that is ready to take charge. The general management team will just have two deputy CEOs, Philippe Heim and Pierre Palmieri. The executive committee, which I'm going to be creating, its composition was made public in March, includes some wonderful professionals who are deeply attached to the Société Générale culture, to which myself, as Frédéric and others, are deeply attached. We have new people with new ideas from other walks of life.
The quality of our management's team evidences the wealth of competence and the attractiveness of our group, and I intend to strengthen that attractiveness. I'm also hugely proud that there should be as many women as men in this team, which is a first for a European-listed bank. You all know what my priorities are. They are what I have presented to the Board of Directors. This new chapter that we wish to open together will be based on our two fundamental strengths, our teams and our clients. We will have three priority strategic objectives driven by a tenacious ambition to perform sustainably and to obtain better, a better share price. You, as shareholders, can entrust me with this.
A quality of performance for our roadmap, the roadmap that will be presented in September, and for all of the ongoing strategic projects which we have discussed throughout the day. Our new retail bank in France, the development of Boursorama, the leader of online banking in France, the creation of a new global leader in mobility, creation with AllianceBernstein of a global leader in research and cash, equity cash, and the deployment of a determined and responsible ESG policy. A structural improvement of the group's profitability will also be a key priority. These principles and targets are all the more important that they are a clear compass in a banking world and macroeconomic and a geopolitical world that is increasingly confused.
I am well-versed in the science of the financial markets, therefore can measure the huge responsibility that lies ahead and the challenges that banking groups will need to continue to face. If you elect me as a director, my team and myself will dedicate all of our energy with audacity and passion to the future of the bank. I would like to finish by thanking Frédéric Oudéa for his 15 years of leadership and his personal support for my person in the years. Also to Diony Lebot, I have worked with over many years, and her commitment to the group has always been exemplary. I am also thinking of Sébastien Proto, who also worked very hard on the merger of the two banking networks and the IT handover process. Many thanks.
Thank you, Slawomir.
In terms of the composition of the Board of Directors, 2023 is marked by a number of major changes. Now let us listen to Gérard Mestrallet, who is head of the Compensation and Corporate Governance Committee.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, in addition to Frédéric Oudéa, three directors are now reaching the end of their term of office. Kyra Hazou, a director since 2011, is reaching the end of her third term of office. Member of the Audit Committee and the Risk Committee, member of the U.S. Risk Committee. Kyra brought her valuable input to the board and her outstanding legal expertise in at a time when it was particularly welcome. She was perfectly assiduous. Her contribution is recognized by all.
She must today give up this because she affected by the rule of 12 years that would lead her to lose her independence. As a replacement, the committee, assisted by a consulting firm, proposes Mrs. Ulrika Ekman. Like Kyra, she is a legal expert, a former partner of one of the greatest American law firms. She sits on the board of Greenhill, an American financial company. Mrs. Ekman, could you say a few words to our shareholders as an introduction?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Ladies, gentlemen, dear shareholders, ladies and gentlemen, members of the board, it is a great honor for me, truly, that my application to become a director be submitted to you. I am age 60. I am Swedish, but I have lived in the United States for a long time.
I am very keen to contribute to the Board of Directors of Société Générale. My experience in corporate management, in highly regulated environments, particularly in the financing industry in the U.S., for which I worked for a great many years. I also have significant legal and corporate governance experience, and in addition, I have sat as director as many of many other companies. As several of my terms of office as director are soon to end, I can assure you that my priority will be my role as a faithful director of Société Générale. Many thanks in advance for your trust.
Merci, Ulrika.
Thank you, Ulrika. A second renewal is coming up, as Juan María Nin Génova does not wish to continue until the end of his term of office in 2024. The Spanish government has indeed appointed Juan María as chairman of ITP Aero. He considered that he would not be sufficiently available to occupy his position as a director of Société Générale, which is highly demanding. Again, I cannot say too much about the contribution that Juan María has made to our board. A great banker, a great business leader, connoisseur of retail banking. He was a colleague we listened to very much, notably when merging Crédit du Nord and Société Générale. After extensive research with an outside consultancy, the Board of Directors, upon proposal by the appointments committee, has selected a candidate who fully fits the profile.
A woman who is familiar with retail banking and has significant experience in technology and digital and mobility. Béatrice Cossa-Dumurgier, former employee of BNP Paribas and BlaBlaCar, Chief Operational Officer of Believe, is being proposed. She also has significant experience as a Director, including for Groupe Casino. Béatrice, could you introduce yourself?
Many thanks, Mr. Chair. Ladies and gentlemen, Dear shareholders, Dear Directors, it's a great honor for me to apply and present my candidacy. It's true indeed that I work in tech. I work for the Believe group, which is the fourth global actor and first independent actor in digital music.
My prior position was the same one at BlaBlaCar. Prior to that, I worked for 20 years in the financial sector, both for the French Treasury at the Ministry of Finance and then 15 years for BNP Paribas, essentially in retail banking and consumer loans and for general management. I was COO for the retail arm of BNP Paribas, which covers all of the banks in the Eurozone, as well as banks in Turkey, North Africa, and the United States. I pushed for the digitalization of its model and launched Hello bank! I was in charge of a business unit called Personal Investors, Brokerage, with a presence in Europe and India.
While at BNP Paribas, I was administrator of a number of banks, BNL in Italy, TEB in Turkey, and Personal Finance and Cortal Consors, a number of subsidiaries of BNP Paribas. I was also independent director at SNCF Mobilités. I currently sit on the Board of Peugeot Invest and Casino. I would be delighted to dedicate my energy and commitment to Société Générale. Thank you very much.
Merci, Béatrice.
Thank you, Béatrice. My replacement, because after two mandates, after having co-led the selection of the new general manager, it seemed to me that it was time to leave the place. The profile sought was a chairman and CEO or managing director of a listed company. Again, a complicated profile to find. I'd like to thank Benoît de Ruffray, CEO of Eiffage, for accepting this responsibility. He knows the big international companies, Bouygues, Eiffage. He has had important responsibilities in Asia. Together with Henri Poupart-Lafarge, he'll be able to maintain the experience of corporate management that is so essential in the Board of Directors of a major bank. Benoît, I'll let you introduce yourself.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, board members, Mr. Chairman.
It is with great emotion and happiness that I'm here before you today for my candidacy to be a board member of Société Générale. My name is Benoit de Ruffray . I'm 56, married, father of five children, and a happy grandfather of eight grandchildren. I was the CEO of Eiffage, a world leader in construction and concessions, for over seven years. From the start of my studies, I was attracted to construction and engineering because of its human dimension. I spent many years on construction sites, with workers who could teach us what real life is all about. Over 15 years of my career abroad, my family came along with me on four continents. After moving 19 times, we decided to return to France in 2007, where I became general manager of BRIC Group.
The selection committee of Eiffage, the nominations committee, asked me to become chairman of the group after the sudden death of my predecessor, Pierre Berger. I joined Eiffage in January 2016 in a situation that was so special as the Chief Executive Officer, fully aware of the challenges for the teams and for our customers, and all the challenges to which we needed to rise. Wishing to put all of my passion for construction to help the teams to continue to develop as before. I'm not a specialist in banking, in the world of banking, but I would like to provide your Board of Directors all of my experience as a client of banks and to Société Générale in particular, in its legacy activities, but also in its major development initiatives, particularly in mobility.
Rest reassured that I will place my passion as an industrialist, my hands-on touch to provide my services to your board, and I thank you so much for your trust.
Thank you, Benoit. After you vote, and if you follow the board's recommendations, the composition of the board, excluding employee directors, will maintain the same balance between men and women. The proportion of women directors is 42% based on the calculation recommended by the Afep-Medef Code. In terms of collective competence, its composition corresponds to the expectations of the board. Its ability to understand technological developments will be strengthened with the arrival of Béatrice Cossa-Dumurgier and Benoit de Ruffray. Ulrika Ekman, in addition to her legal experience, will bring her understanding of the American market. Let me add that having been CEO of BlaBlaCar, Béatrice also has experience in sustainable mobility.
The board should now have 14 members tonight, 11 independent directors out of the 12 directors elected by your general meeting. 1 director representing employee shareholders, also elected by the general meeting, and 2 directors elected by employees. Before concluding this presentation, I would like to highlight 4 points. Jean-Bernard Lévy was reappointed as non-voting director on the proposal of the chairman for two years. Also, the composition of the committees, and in particular of the U.S. Risk Committee, will evolve. As regards the chairmanship of the Nomination Committee, it will revert to Henri Poupart-Lafarge, who's already a member of this committee. The extraordinary part of the general meeting includes the extension of the age limit for the chairman from 70 to 74.
This is an important decision because in 2026, your chairman will have come to the end of his third term of office, and a new chairman will have to be appointed. It is important for Société Générale to have the widest possible choice for this essential position, which requires experience, great skills and a minimum length of service. Last, and since I will be leaving, I would like to thank Lorenzo Bini Smaghi , Frédéric Oudéa, all my colleagues on the board, and especially to all of you, our shareholders, for your trust. Thank you.
Thank you, Gérard. Actually, I would like to thank you for your constant commitment over the past 12 months, in particular, bringing us to the end of a process, an exemplary process of selection for a listed company. I would also like to thank those who are leaving us for their contribution all throughout these years.
I'd like to say a few words as well to Frédéric. I would like to thank him and to express our immense esteem. Nearly 30 years in the company, 15 years as General Manager, incomparable resistance to multiple financial and banking crises. Frédéric was a captain in troubled waters. He paved the way for a renewed strategy with the Crédit du Nord Société Générale merger. He dared what many thought impossible. With ALD LeasePlan, of which he'll be a director, and with Boursorama, he has built the foundations of tomorrow's financial company. For the past year, he managed the managerial transition smoothly and efficiently and elegantly. Thank you, Frédéric, and we wish you all the best for your future career. I'll now give the floor to Jérôme Contamine to tell us more about the compensation policy and principles.
Merci, President.
Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders. As you know, the Board of Directors determines the principles of the compensation policy applicable within the group. Particularly with regard to so-called regulated persons, according to banking regulations. It also sets the compensation of executive directors and decides on granting performance shares within the framework of authorizations given by your general meeting. All of these matters are subject to the prior analysis and approval of the Compensation Committee, which I have the honor of chairing for some two years now. In 2022, the committee met eight times. In accordance with legal provisions, the general meeting, this one, must approve the 2023 compensation policy for corporate officers and vote on the variable component of the compensation of corporate officers for 2022. The group's compensation policy is also, as I just pointed out, subject to numerous regulations.
The Board of Directors has ensured that this policy is fully compliant with these regulations. Now let me turn to ex ante compensation of corporate officers in 2023. With regard to directors in general and non-executive directors, the total remuneration amounts to EUR 1.7 million, the same level as what was adopted by your general meeting on the 23rd of May, 2018. It is therefore proposed that we shall leave it unchanged. Let me also remind you that the Chairman and the Chief Executive Officer do not receive any compensation for their duties as directors. Now, the Chairman of the Board of Directors receives only a fixed salary, unchanged too since 2018, plus the cost of his official accommodation in Paris.
Lastly, to guarantee total independence in the performance of his duties, the chairman receives neither variable compensation, nor securities, nor compensation linked to the group's performance. Now moving on to executive directors. As part of the renewal of the group's governance, as presented before, the overall compensation structure for executive directors has been simplified to improve its readability and to take into account market practices and observations by our stakeholders. This compensation includes a fixed salary and an annual variable compensation and a long-term incentive. The amount of the fixed compensation for 2023 for the new general management to be put in place as of today, if you so vote, was determined by the Board of Directors, taking into account practices of CAC 40 companies and comparable European banks.
Also, the profile of the new CEO who comes, as you know, from investment banking and the level of his current compensation. Also, the total fixed compensation of the current the general manager, Frédéric Oudéa, has not changed since 2011. The evolution of the average basic compensation of Société Générale SA employees in France, which increased by 23% between 2011 and 2022, and by 8% between 2018 and 2022, to which should be added a minimum average increase of 3% under the 2022 to 2023 salary reviews. Lastly, the recommendations of the Afep-Medef Code, which provides that fixed compensation should only be reviewed at relatively long intervals. In addition to this fixed compensation, we have a variable compensation for all of general management based on three criteria that will be common to all of general management.
For 65% on the basis of the budgeted achievement of the financial criteria of profitability, ROTE, and the group cost-income ratio, subject to maintaining a satisfactory level of capital, CET1. For 20%, I stress this, on the basis of the achievement of CSR objectives. In that respect, over time, we increase the weight of CSR. For 15% on the basis of criteria related to the group's strategy and businesses, as well as good risk management and compliance. Variable compensation, which may account for 120% of fixed compensation for the Chief Executive Officer and 100% for executive vice presidents. Annual variable compensation is largely indexed to the SG share or its equivalent, subject to performance conditions and deferred over five years in accordance with banking regulations.
Thirdly, long-term incentive, which will only vest after five years, subject to the achievement of performance requirements based on three components. One-third, a condition of relative performance of the SG share, the Société Générale share, compared to the shares of a panel of European peers that already exists. One-third on a future profitability requirement to be proposed by the Board of Directors as of 2024, and for 1/3 based on requirements related to the respect of climate trajectories. We also try there, too, to simplify performance criteria for long-term incentives. The amount of this compensation is capped at 100% of fixed compensation. Lastly, in accordance to banking regulations, the sum of annual compensation and long-term incentive payments awarded in respect of a given year may not exceed two years of fixed compensation. Additional clauses.
Executive directors are also eligible to an indemnity to compensate for a non-competition clause. If paid at the level of their fixed compensation and whose duration is increased to 12 months. Lastly, a severance indemnity. A severance payment described in the universal document, which is paid only in the event of forced departure from the group. Lastly, the chief operating officers and ex-executive directors whose employment contract is suspended for the duration of their term of office, retain the benefit of the supplementary pension plan for senior executives. Contributions to this plan are subject to a performance condition and set at 8% of fixed compensation exceeding four times the Social Security ceiling. Let me now turn to the specific departure of our CEO, Frédéric Oudéa, as of today.
For the deferred amount, as regards the deferment, deferred annual variable not yet vested, the condition of presence will no longer be applicable after the expiry date of the term of office. The other conditions, and in particular the performance conditions and the timing of payment, remain applicable, and this remains unchanged. The allocation of the annual variable compensation for the period starting this year until today will be decided by the board Well, based on the ex-ante policies for 2023, and with the usual timetable for assessing the performance of corporate officers, submitted to the shareholders for their approval. With regard to long-term incentives, the shares not yet vested will be vested only on a pro-rata basis for the time spent between the grant date and the end of the term of office, meaning today.
All of the conditions provided for under the compensation policy, in particular performance conditions and the timetable, remain applicable. As you can see, Frédéric Oudéa will not receive any long-term incentive awards for 2022 and 2023 in application of the Code Afep-Medef regulations. Frédéric Oudéa does not benefit from any indemnity for the termination of his mandate, and remains bound by a non-competition clause for a period of six months from the date of termination of his duties, meaning as of today. He will therefore receive six months of fixed compensation. He will not benefit from any additional Société Générale pension since his employment contract has come to an end. Now turning to the ex-post compensation for 2022. Please read with me. Quickly, you can see a fixed compensation proposed for the general manager and for the deputy general managers.
An annual variable compensation amounting to EUR 1,566,503.13 for Frédéric Oudéa, EUR 848,000 for Philippe Aymerich and Diony Lebot , provided that they attain different criteria that have been set. Only Philippe, because he will stay on as director general, will benefit from long-term incentives in order to comply with the regulatory requirement to cap the variable components in relation to fixed compensations. The amount of the long-term incentive was conditional based on the variable compensation with respect to the fixed compensation, as I pointed out earlier, meaning two times the fixed compensation level.
Now briefly, on the next slide, moving on, the changes in compensation for company offices and especially long-term incentives and the favorable trends in average or the median for salaries at Société Générale both have led to a significant decline in the ratio between the compensation for the executive directors and the median compensation within the group. 47 for the median and 33 for the average. Let me also point out that the committee also ensured modalities for regulated populations within the framework of the CRD V Directive for 2022, 614 persons were identified as belonging to this group, largely what we call risk-takers, largely people working in investment banking. The average amount of variable compensation increased, given the good performance, not surprisingly. It's up by 11% compared to 2021 for these risk-takers.
The average total compensation for 2022 rose by 9%. I tried to be rather quick in this technical presentation. Let me also draw your attention to the fact that these amounts, as you can see, are different from those submitted to you for a consultative vote in resolution 13, which concerns amounts paid and not amounts attributed, and which reflect the performance of the year given the significant proportion of deferred variable compensation from previous years. Thank you for your attention.
Thank you. Thank you, Jérôme. We're now going to proceed with the debate. This year, the shareholders were given the opportunity to ask one or several questions in writing. Individual shareholders, namely Mr. Pierre-Yves Grimont, Philippe De Young, Emmanuel Besson, Dominique Leroy, François Plassat, Jean-Claude Robert, Jean-Bernard Ponthus, and Mrs. Yutong Li. NGOs, namely ShareAction, Les Amis de la Terre. Institutional, such as the Forum for Responsible Investment. One shareholder, Mr. Thierry Bour, sent a series of questions about his own personal situation that was irrelevant to the assembly. He will receive a personalized response. All of the answers to these questions were published last Wednesday, yesterday and today on the general assembly's website, which therefore allows me to open the debate with the room, with the floor. I suggest we start with a question from the consultative committee. Microphones are made available.
Our staff will circulate them as required. Please return the microphone to the young person as soon as you've finished, and try to keep your questions brief to allow as many of you to ask their questions. Let me start with Mr. Grabowski. Number 5. Microphone number 5. Front row, please.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I had a question about the measure of customer satisfaction in terms of their relationships with Société Générale. Could you say a few words about the indicators you're using to measure that satisfaction or any indicators you would like to implement in future? If you could tell us more specifically about your targets or your sales team's targets. Are they set targets in numbers in terms of customer satisfaction?
Perhaps I'll let Philippe Aymerich answer this, question for retail banking. I would just like to state, to specify, that all management positions, the 60 top managers in the bank, are directly incentivized. It takes account, whatever the geography or whatever the type of customer, 10%, the incentive is 10% in the variable portion of compensation. It's one of the indicators for general managers. It's always been at the heart of our strategy. Philippe, perhaps you could tell us more about the specifics of retail banking.
Yes. Greetings to all. Thank you for your question. Indeed, it's crucial. It is an absolute duty. If our customers are not happy, we cannot grow the business, and we cannot obtain financial performance. To answer more specifically about our new bank, SG, in France. The systems are comparable across all of our banks, including abroad. I'd say that there are two broad families of indicators. One which is conventional, in which there's a very large and broad sweeping comparative study conducted with 15,000 customers. There's also analyses of complaints, and there are also mystery shoppers. It's a well-proven system that continues to yield good results, and we have complemented this in a very significant manner in the past few years with three new indicators, which are so-called active listening indicators.
The first one is, every week we send out a questionnaire, what we call a cold-headed questionnaire. 150 customers are consulted to, so, to voice their opinion. It's not as a result of a particular event or a particular action or whether they'd recommend us or not. Second part, there's a, the sort of hot customer listing after a number of events. After a, an appointment with their banker or after a loan, for instance, we're going to get in touch with the customer to know how they felt, whether they were happy or if they felt frustrated.
The third element is the analysis of social media, because it's of course very much part of our lives, and it's very important for us to take a closer look at what circulates on social media, be it directly or indirectly. With all of these indicators, I would say that we're achieving two things. First of all, we're reaching out to customers who declared themselves dissatisfied to try to resolve the issue. That is of course priority number one. Number two, we try to draw key learnings from all of this to improve our business processes, our practices, our operations. Finally, third target is indeed, as you were saying yourself, or as Frédéric was saying, to set targets both in terms of our bankers in the branches all the way up to top managers, because part of the compensation is based on that.
That is what the system is in a nutshell. It's a fast-moving system. Very recently, the most recent development is this focus on active listening.
Thank you. Could I ask the stewards and stewardesses to perhaps move towards number seven?
Thank you very much. I will deliver my question in English, and my colleague will translate it into French.
No, can you do it directly in French or...?
No, but I.
Okay.
It'll be really short.
Okay. That's fine.
Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Radek Kubala, I'm here speaking as a representative of Czech-based coalition Stop Dirty Money. With this coalition, we are demanding for banks and insurers to stop cooperating with fossil fuel corporations. Today, I want to highlight a fundamental issue, which is the ongoing and long-term collaboration between the Société Générale and the energy company EPH, which is owned by our Czech oligarch, Daniel Křetínský.
Czech oligarch.
Let me put it clearly that EPH is a very dirty company, which emissions from coal alone surpass the emissions of the entire Finland. Their subsidiaries like MIBRAG and LEAG, and LEAG in Germany mines dozens million stones of coal annually. Few days ago, EPH also delivered a plan for purchase of STEAG, another coal company owning six more power plants in Germany and some in Turkey, Colombia and Philippines. Definitely EPH is not the company that is on the track of decarbonization. For us, coal is not the only reason why we think Société Générale should not cooperate with EPH. One of the EPH companies, Slovak eustream, was before the war, the largest independent importer of Russian gas into Europe. EPH, as such, has the largest plan for the development of gas infrastructure among all European energy companies.
As you know, we cannot afford that to ensure a habitable planet. We can talk about much more things that are connected with the EPH and the oligarch, Daniel Křetínský. we wrote.
Can you get to the question?
We described everything in our report. It would be really nice if you can receive the report from us as a gift. I have two examples of it. I want to make just one simple demand. In the interest of climate justice, I urge you to end the collaboration with EPH. My question is simple: When you will do it, and what you need from the public to do this step.
Okay.
To stop the dirty cooperation with the dirty company, EPH, and the Czech oligarch, Daniel Křetínský.
Okay.
Thank you very much for this.
Perhaps we don't need to translate. I suppose Mrs. Lebot will answer, and people can infer the question from the answer. To make things perfectly clear, we're talking about a very specific situation, a Czech customer.
Yes, well, on principle, we don't comment individual customer cases, your point, of course, is a question about our policy in terms of coal. Société Générale was one of the very first banks to commit very strongly to gradually exit coal, to reduce our exposure to zero by 2030 in OECD countries and EU countries, and by 2040 in the rest of the world. Since 2016 have stopped financing projects that are purely dedicated to coal, and we have started working or started a conversation, as I was saying earlier, a conversation with our customers to analyze their alignment and disengagement strategy.
Based on that sectoral policy, we take individual decisions either to exit or to continue working with them. We always do this very transparently in terms of our policies and what we do.
Thank you. To your left.
Bonjour.
Hi. My name is Caroline Metz. I'm talking on behalf of ShareAction, which you mentioned earlier, which is a British NGO that, of course, is active in responsible investments. We would first of all like to thank Société Générale for its commitment by our sides over the past few years. We'd like to note that the bank, as you have said, has been one of the leaders in withdrawing from coal, although there is still much work that remains to be done, it seems. I would now like to discuss oil and gas. As you know, the International Energy Agency concluded two years ago that its carbon neutrality scenario by 2050 means that no new oil or gas sites should be approved for new developments.
Société Générale said it was in favor of that, and it based its policy on that scenario, as we heard earlier. The bank should therefore logically apply all of the conclusions of the International Energy Agency to its financing policies. In February 2023, a group of 22 investors accounting more than EUR 1.4 billion in assets, including and La Française Asset Management, called for Société Générale to move even further. These investments asked Société Générale to stop financing new oil and gas extraction projects and to take measures against customers who are investing in new installations. Two weeks ago, BNP Paribas, which also received a letter from investors, answered and said it excluded direct funding of new oil and gas fields and committed to gradually disengage from non-diversified exploration and production companies.
My question is as follows: Can Société Générale commit to publish by the end of 2023 a strategy aiming to restrict direct financing of new oil and gas projects and financing of companies who develop them? Thank you.
I would like to thank you for asking this question with at least an acknowledgement of what we have done, which is why we can have a meaningful conversation. I believe that Société Générale is probably one of the very first banks to have committed in the short term, 2025, not 2050 or 2030, to reduce in absolute terms its financing to the fossil fuel sector, oil and gas. Let me also remind you the commitments we made in terms of coal.
We have given up on a number of relationships because of this. I believe that this question will be a question for Slavomir when the time comes. What I can tell you is that very naturally, it would be very strange if I had been to take new commitments as I was about to leave Société Générale. I'm sure that Slavomir will address these issues when the time comes. I would just like to tell you how deeply committed we are, as Diony said, and also how keen we are to provide support to our clients. There, there might be a bit of a gap there. We do try to encourage our customers to transform their business model in a positive manner and more pragmatically.
I would just like to insist on the fact that access to energy is a huge challenge in the short term for a lot of our customers, for a large part of the French population. Threats on the balance of society and, or confrontations between different generations must not be allowed to prevail. I think we really need to educate about the proper transition scenario. If you'll allow me, I would rather let Slavomir answer this when the time comes.
Thank you for engaging with us in a rational manner. You will certainly obtain a response by the end of the year. To the left here.
Bonjour, madame et monsieur.
Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank Mrs. Lebot . She has done very much for Société Générale in terms of the bank's inclusion policy, including for the LGBT community. I am a shareholder, but I have been an employee of Société Générale myself for more than 30 years, and that's something that we're very happy with. That is not the purpose of my question. It was about the compensation policy. I am delighted to see that Société Générale is making a lot of money. I'm very happy for the bank. I'm very happy for the directors. I'm very happy for the top management in terms of all of these compensation policies. I hope I won't get any catcalls here. As an employee I certainly hope that I'm allowed to say something, to speak out.
I have been working for Société Générale for more than 30 years, and I've lost my motivation. I am deeply shocked by the indecent difference that exists between the compensation policy for top managers and the total lack of consideration for myself personally. I'm not talking for every Société Générale employee because I am not here to speak on behalf of them. I'm not a union member. Just as an individual, this is my opinion. I talk to my colleagues, and a lot of them complain too. Some of them resign. A lot of young people resign because they see that they don't have any future in terms of pay. Of course, money is not the most important thing in life, but it certainly does help. You were talking earlier about team spirit.
I thought, "What does that mean?" I looked it up, and there's a sentence in there that says, "We wish to become the reference relation bank and work with our customers as we wish to work amongst ourselves." Listening, co-construction, valuation of contributions, and the final one, it's a bit of a joke, solidarity in success and in difficulties. For the time being, I personally have only seen solidarity when there were difficulties. When the going is easy, I see nothing coming. I had to wait for five years to get a EUR 2,000 a year gross salary raise annually. My question is, don't you think that as part of your corporate values, you should also include simple notions of decency and fairness?
Again, allow me to answer this one.
There might be an individual issue you're facing. I have spent a lot of time in social dialogue with the unions. Every quarter, I would meet with them. Every quarter, we would discuss both the strategy and the compensation. I would like to thank the unions because we have worked very hard to transform the bank. I believe we have worked very well on issues of compensation. I would like to show you, though, I mean, if you'll allow me. Why don't we talk about me? We talked about the equity ratios. Could we put that slide back up on the screen, the one that's specifically about me? The ratios are down. 64 in 2021, 47 in 2022, 45 if you look at the average compensation. That's the average compensation of employees, EUR 76,000 up to EUR 88,000 in two years.
That is the overall statistic. We signed an agreement with employee representatives about pay to factor in inflation. There have been significant pay rises. We have also had additional profit sharing to avoid an impact on potential dividend distribution. I would say that we have been extremely responsible in terms of compensation. Of course, this is an average. There may be individual cases that do not reflect that. If I look at these figures, I would say that we have no reason to be ashamed in the manner in which we have shared with employees, shared the group's success with the employees. Over the past two years, we have now relaunched a employee shareholder plan. I have just signed the plan for 2023.
Very attractive conditions, meaning that currently, Société Générale's employees themselves hold a significant portion of the bank's shares.
Thank you, Frédéric. Is there someone towards the left? Number 2, near number 2.
We, Mr. Epir, individual shareholder. Mr. Epir, individual shareholder. I saw that the number of employees, the headcount was down 10%, but the payroll was up 25%. It sounds a little bit strange. If I look at the chart on page 13 of the summons to the invitation to attend, for 2020, dividend distribution, 0. On the line just below that, it says 2019, paid out in 2020, EUR 2.2. I'd like to understand. Another question. You seem very happy with the internet and banks. You can't place orders on the internet when the shares are subjected to bonuses.
You have to go to the banking branch and pay huge fees. We're going to complain about that, and it's very difficult to obtain compensation. Mr. Oudéa, seven, eight years ago, I'd already talked about that in a meeting in an agency that was near the Paris Stock Exchange, and eight years later, I'm still waiting for an answer.
I'm not quite sure that I can answer this accurately enough for you, but in fact, the reduction of the headcount is probably the disposal of Rosbank, which employed 12,000 people. Of course, I'm slightly surprised with your 25%, but I suppose it's a manner to answer the previous question.
Yes, we have given pay rises both on the fixed and the variable portion of pay, and we have taken into account the need to motivate and to share profits with our employees. As for the dividend, let me remind you that we were unable to pay out a dividend for 2020 because of COVID. You may remember that it was simply prohibited by the supervisor. We resumed our dividend distribution policy, both in cash, as will be the case this year, EUR 1.7, and last year EUR 1.65, offering an attractive yield for shareholders.
In addition to that, a share buyback plan, EUR 440 million this year, which allows us to buy back shares, which we then cancel and allow us to pay out more dividends because the same future profit is of course divided by a smaller number of shareholders. I'm terribly sorry that I do not seem to have answered your request seven or eight years ago. I don't know if anyone at this table can answer you about the Internet. Yes, perhaps briefly. I don't have the answer myself. I will try and do this quicker than seven or eight years. There are a few specific cases. A very specific case. There are some things that we cannot actually manage through the app or over the Internet in a perfectly seamless manner, so that must fall under this category.
Let me reassure you, our SG app, I could talk about the Boursorama app. We have apps and software that are very popular with our customers, to talk about the comparative analysis conducted in the rankings, we rank very high. Maybe we haven't processed what you've just talked about, the Internet is a fantastic tool for SG's shareholders in general. There's a booth outside where individual issues can be addressed with bank employees, that might work for you.
Behind number 4, perhaps.
Mr. Chair, greetings. Alain Dontant. I'm an individual shareholder. I would like to tell the gentleman who is about to become our CEO, I'm still finding it difficult to pronounce his name, welcome in your new job.
To the gentleman who's about to leave as the CEO, thank you and good luck at Sanofi. A lot of people in this room also hold Sanofi shares and ALD. I am delighted that recruitment was conducted internally, and I am delighted to see that was the case. Three questions. One, have you looked at the Credit Suisse case? As you know, it was acquired by UBS. Second question, did you suffer any damage as a result of the demonstrations against the pension reform earlier this year? Were there many bank branches that were attacked or ransacked? Third question, a lot of people come here to complain. Well, I'm just going to congratulate you.
I've had the opportunity to say what, my opinion, what I thought about Octavia last week, and I can tell you what, I can tell you my opinion about Sharinbox for those who have, purely nominative shares. You developed something that's perhaps not totally user-friendly, but once you've understood it works really well. Well done for that. I would have a suggestion to improve. Once you've managed to include all of these shares on the same email address, could you perhaps create a single unified tax form, for, a single account? Thanks for that.
Well, thank you very much, for paying tribute to our employees' hard work and, the quality of our app.
We didn't really have the opportunity to look into that case because, as you know, a Swiss solution was found in a very short period of time locally. There were a few branches that did suffer, as did some of our competitors, but less during the so-called yellow vest crisis. I think we were probably not at the heart of the protest. Yes, a few branches were damaged, but relatively limited damage and not the violence. If you remember the Crédit du Nord branch that actually burnt down and endangers the lives of its employees during the yellow vests. For the platform, well, many thanks for your feedback. We're going to look into it. It's part of the active listening that we conduct. In terms of the branches, Frédéric has already answered that.
Although we tend to be, we have, in Paris, we have a great many branches, and a lot of the demos take place in Paris.
Mr. Chair, greetings. This is Solange for the APAI Association pour le Patrimoine et l'Actionnariat Individuel. I would, of course, I would like to turn to the excellent job performed by your team in extending a warm welcome to individual shareholders. I attend a large number of such meetings, and your efforts to extend a welcome is absolutely fantastic. Well, you can thank the secretary of the board. Which brings me to my three questions. Very clearly, a company cannot just boil down to a set of figures.
In view of this paradigm, with the emergence of artificial intelligence and new technologies, chatbots, and so on and so forth, can you tell us how you can both attract and retain talent, and how you hedge or cover cyber risk, which I believe is a never-ending race against adversity? Second question, you have just said, Mr. Oudéa, that you signed an annual employee shareholder plan. We are delighted. It's a very interesting and very positive initiative. You are planning to extend a 30% discount. You're... It's what the papers seem to be saying, so I might be mistaken. In the meantime, a 30% discount does not seem to be the best idea or the best way to impress the market.
If that were to be the case, why do you not suggest a 10% discount for the payment of dividends, either in cash or in shares? My final question. To the extent that you have extremely restrictive ESG criteria, could you tell us which of your directors is in charge of climate risk?
Thank you.
Mister, dear sir, thank you for your questions. Maybe Lorenzo can briefly remind you that... As for the climate and ESG aspects, as I was saying, the entire Board of Directors is responsible for this, and we also have a Censeur, non-voting director that helps the board discuss these issues. We don't have any director who's specifically dedicated to these responsibilities. We all have a common responsibility. Maybe start with the discount, perhaps.
The French legislation allows you to go all the way up to a 30% discount, but we decided not to, and we've decided to keep a 20% discount, which we believe is more appropriate. You also had a very good questions about IT, digital, AI, and so on, both in terms of challenges for customers or how the bank operates or in terms of cyber threats. What I can tell you, and I myself have taken a very keen interest in IT issues. We have taken a great number of initiatives to strengthen our IT systems, both through innovation. We have developed use cases for AI. Of course, it's still early days, and Slawomir and his new team will, of course, need to continue making efforts over the next 10 years or so.
Our talents. It's true that there's a lot of competition, and it's not just a question for Société Générale. I think we are successful in attracting talent because we're continuing to invest. We are looking to achieve efficiencies, but we're continuing to invest, including in innovation. I believe that we're being quite good at keeping the turnover into control. Turnover may be reduced. You know that a lot of tech companies recruited a lot, and that they're now laying off rather than recruiting. The market might be a little bit more favorable in the IT sector over the next few years. Of course, cyber risk is a huge risk, but we need to remain humble. You need to be aware that we have worked very hard with our teams, with a very strong head that imposes standards.
We have a very powerful strategy. Resources, we spend around EUR 250 million on that. We need to continue to fight against obsolescence or new faults, new flaws, new vulnerabilities. We are trying to build a resilient and resistant system with also operational resilience on which we're working very hard. Slawomir and his team will continue to work on that. Maybe that work will never end, but I'm sure that it has been a key focus for top management over the past few years.
Do we have anyone in the back? Otherwise here, second row in the front.
Emmanuel Petel de Lassalle can ask my question.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, Emmanuel Petel. I'm represent a group of current and former employees, Société Générale shareholders. I have a question for the board. What work are you planning to put is the board planning to put into the risk policy, particularly country risks, in view of the rising geopolitical risk in the world?
Thank you for your question. Of course, we have a risk appetite, which we determine every year in August. Of course, geopolitical change is very much factored into that, and we can see that the situation is very fast-moving. Who could have predicted last year's events?
Of course, this is a part of a greater whole, a general evolution of risks, and within our appetite for risk, we have a credit policy and a policy for relationship with our customers. I do not see any reason currently at this point to change our risk appetite in certain countries, because we did, of course, change it after what happened last year. It's a fact that we do need to very closely monitor geopolitical tensions around the world, polarization within certain countries that can make some countries more risky than they used to be. All of the regulatory aspects can change within certain countries or can change as a result of tensions in these countries.
Let me assure you that this is very much taken into account when allocating risk, allocating credit or risk appetite, and it's something which, of course, we very much discuss with the management team. It's very much part of our responsibility, and rest assured that we examine those very carefully, because our footprint expands to almost every country in the world, and we therefore do factor this in, and we look at this very carefully. Even what happens within such and such a country, can lead to particularly critical situations. Of course, everyone reads the newspapers and follows and monitors the situation closely. Let me also specify that we categorize countries every year and that we set exposure limits for each country, something that we monitor very closely.
Number 6, if you go to your right.
Mr. Chair, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, Mr. Director General Frédéric Oudéa, we're very sorry about your the answer you gave. As you said, climate emergency is no longer relevant to you. I will speak directly therefore to Mr. Krupa. I can't see you, Mr. Krupa, but I hope you will answer my question. The scientific community has been assertive for years that we'll not attain carbon neutrality and restrict global warming at 0.5 degrees if oil and gas fields are operated. For each dollar invested in fossil energy, it costs for nine in transition, five for power generation and distribution. Mr. Krupa, we expect the bank to no longer support such projects, can you also make a commitment to stick to that ratio and to increase your funding for producing sustainable electricity to give 5x more capital to it than to fossil energy?
As you said, Mr. Krupa will answer you publicly when he gives his presentation to the markets. Slawomir, anything you'd like to say?
Yes, just a few words. We will answer many questions on strategy, on continuity, and any potential change when we make an address to the market later on this year. I'd like to share two or three convictions with you. First of all, it is a complex matter. If we had a easy way out, I think we're all responsible with respect to our own lives and the lives of our children, we would apply it. It is a complex matter, that is why we call it a transition from the very outset. I won't repeat what Frédéric said, with great conviction. Look at all the statements he has made. Made by Frédéric. We are strong. When we exited coal almost 10 years ago, we were the first, we were resolved and determined and very responsible. Have we done it all?
Were we the best of class in this transition? Maybe not, but we did it very seriously and sincerely. Responsibility, which stems from the very word transition. Changing everything from one day to the next is not possible. It generates many risks that Frédéric recalled, even from a social standpoint and in terms of how our society works. In the spirit of responsibility around the concept of transition, we will continue to do our best to significantly and quickly reduce. We took specific commitments earlier than the rest of the profession. We will reduce funds allocated to fossil energy in general, and of course, we will continue to work on transition. We have been doing so with our teams for over 25 years now. We started to finance renewable energies already in the 90s. Thank you.
I was looking for a message I sent to the staff when I was nominated in 2008. I spoke about developing in CSR together with society. That was 15 years ago.
Fine. Number 2 over there.
Thank you. Hello. Individual shareholder. three questions. First of all, Société Générale is not present in assets management. After being so brilliant with SGAM and Lyxor, there's nothing left today after you sold your shares to Amundi. Now, how can you be a major bank today without having a subsidiary in assets management, helping the group to be global? In other free advertising, regarding negotiations on the exit from Russia, a major American group in catering negotiated the possibility of coming back in the next 15 years if circumstances so allow. Could we also do the same? Americans were the better negotiators than we are.
Third question, if you don't mind. About the crisis in the profession of bank advisors. The press speaks about massive resignations. Is there something to be changed in that profession, in the profession of a banking advisor, to stop so many people from being attracted to this profession?
Thank you. I'll let Philippe speak about the bank advisor as a profession, and I will speak about assets management products that we market.
First of all, following the financial crisis in 2010, we were medium-sized. We were very fragilized by the crisis, and we helped to create a real success in European assets management with Amundi. More recently, we disposed of Lyxor because we saw that Lyxor's market shares were being eaten up by others such as BlackRock. There's a risk of losing in terms of competitiveness and value.
There, too, we sold it to Amundi, and it was a very good idea for both players in this transaction. Then we set up a system. Let me tell you about my conviction. A closed model as an asset manager will die in 10 years' time. Our line of reasoning, and many European banks do not have any asset managers, is to develop partnerships with a certain number of asset managers with the idea of offering the best product to our clients. Not our product, but the best product available. With agreements with Amundi, our preferred partner, but other asset managers, including amongst the responsible asset management product ranges. My feeling is that that model will grow in future, and it will be up to Slawomir to see if he wants to continue with asset management businesses. Russia. Let me repeat.
I believe that the right decision to be responsible means disposing of it as quickly as possible. Maintaining a presence would entail many risks of many different sorts. The way we disposed of the bank doesn't prevent us from returning if we so wish. I have doubts about the fact that our shareholders would like us to do it quickly, and even us as general managers for a few minutes, and the new general manager would like to do that. If we dispose of it's also because I think that what happened in 2022 is a geopolitical disruption that is sustainable. It will take at least 10 years, I fear.
I'm the first to regret this for Europe. For our business that worked well in Russia, we had a fine business in Russia, I'm afraid that it will be lasting for at least the next 10 years. Once you can no longer meet the governor of the Central Bank of Russia, the Minister of Finance in Russia, you're exposed to risks, and there's only one way out. I'm glad that we're able to do it so on the terms that will not impair the future of Société Générale. We did it responsibly once again.
Banking advisors, anything you'd like to add to that with respect to asset management?
Well, you said it all on asset management. We fully believe in an open architecture which has been implemented for about 10 years now.
Regarding your question, which is wonderful, we could talk about it for quite a long time. On top of banking advisors, I'm thinking of our branch directors. You are right. We can see that we see some of these people who change, who have up for a new life. It's not going to a competitor. Some do, but many change their lives entirely. In that respect, I'm convinced that what's crucial, and it lies at the heart of the reasons why the new bank was created. These employees chose that profession to interact with clients. It is true that over time, due to regulations that were imposed on us and becoming increasingly cumbersome, and also maybe because of a lack of simplicity, the commercial time, the moments they had with customers were shortened.
You have been working on this for quite some time already. On top of compensation and career outlooks and training, that's all important, but you must give them, once again, the possibility to fully practice their profession and the reason why they chose this profession, which is what we call the customer time or the commercial time. Business, customer satisfaction, that is absolutely essential. I believe that Frédéric and Slawomir said it. Our two assets, our teams and our clients, especially those in contact with clients. Yes, the gentleman there in the middle, number 4. Then I'll take 2 more, and then we will vote if you so agree.
I'm an individual shareholder. I have about 500 shares. I knew Société Générale in the days of the takeover from BNP. I knew Société Générale days of Kerviel.
Now I see Société Générale with the problem with Rosbank. It's almost half of the bank that is disappearing now. Are we on the border of the precipice? When we had SGAM before that reigned over the financial market, well, things have changed a lot. In terms of governance, I don't understand. Capital is going. Some of the services are leaving. Mr. Proto, who managed to merge the two networks, and which was essential, is leaving too. I get the feeling that we're cutting off the thinking heads of the bank, and there's nothing left. We're becoming a headless group. I don't understand why you didn't ask Mr. Jean-Bernard Lévy, who is well-recognized and acknowledged, captain of an industry, you know, for the time for things to be rolled out nicely, because he will have a very hesitant period.
I have the feeling the bank is being dropped to the second league.
Can I answer your question?
No, my question is, here, it will be fuzzy until the new management comes in. If the clever people launch a takeover bid, what do you do then? Would you have to be backed by another group to go up to a higher league, or what do we do then?
If I can answer your question. Listen up. We have 15 board members. Four are leaving. One, well, Kyra Hazou had three terms of office. You lose your independence if you do more. Otherwise, you become a lifelong board member. Another director is leaving because he received a proposal from the Spanish government to become the president of an important institution in Spain.
Gérard Mestrallet is leaving after two terms of office because he's 72, and he would like to do something else in his life. Frédéric Oudéa, after 15 years, announced last year that he was leaving. As I explained clearly in my presentation earlier, during the past 12 months, we prepared that succession. There is no void. Mr. Krupa has been in the bank for 27 years, as he said, if you listen carefully. There is no void. Quite the opposite. We did what an international listed company should do. We prepared that succession. We prepared three new board members, plus the replacement of the general manager with the CVs that you saw. I think that it was difficult to do things any better when it comes to the transition from one management team to another.
On our Board of Directors, we're 11 out of 15 are still there. I think I've answered your question. Once again, I would like to stress this. Slawomir was on the management team, and he has been there for two and a half years now. He had over eight months to get ready, so there will be nothing will be fuzzy. He is ready. He announced his team at the start of March. Everything was prepared to avoid having a fuzzy situation. Russia is not the half of the bank, luckily. Otherwise, it would be more complicated. It accounts for 5%-6% of our profits. We dispose of it. It's behind us now. You saw the operational performance as it was record high. Apart from the impact we saw in 2022, the results in the first quarter, all of that is running smoothly.
Slawomir will continue with that effort in the major strategic projects that are fully understood by our investors, and they expect results in the next two years. Let me repeat that other banks tried to dispose of their subsidiaries in Russia unsuccessfully so far, whereas we managed to quickly execute that on the recommendation of the board. There are one or two questions. You already asked the question. Number three over there.
Hello, Mr. Chair and Mr. Director. Philip Schoeller, a small individual shareholder of Société Générale, and also about 10 other CAC 40 companies. I have a small portfolio I've been managing for many years now, responsibly, at based on advice I get in financial magazines and at general meetings, and so far done it very successfully.
I think there are many people in this room who are in the same situation as I am. I'm wondering if we're not a vanishing generation. Before this, I was a computer expert, and I spoke with a friend lately, and there's one thing that really worries us, an expression we hear all the time. Mr. Oudéa also said that before, I'm referring to artificial intelligence.
For me, there is no artificial intelligence, no such thing. These are super computers with a good team of programmers for the time being. In a few years time, these computers will be powerful enough to do it, things to program themselves, I'm afraid that they'll become real monsters.
It will no longer be easy to manage things in a reasoned manner and as an investor, because these machines, with groups or people behind it, with a good financial capacity, will come in and will manage to change the market very swiftly. We'll end up by having what we saw with the American millionaire who bought a big company for fun. He realized that he didn't like it. After a few months, he put someone else in charge. Now he's moved on to something else.
Thank you so much for answering that question.
I believe that that's a very vast question, to be a bit lengthy, to answer it in detail. There are real challenges with AI and how it will be used, ethical considerations and standards which will be applied and must be controlled even for the financial markets.
I understand that you're imagining a world made up of algorithms and powerful trading so that powerful people can identify opportunities. I believe that regulators will keep an eye on that in due course. That's indispensable. I think it will not do away with the benefits of being able to invest in a company over the medium-term. It may not apply to invest today investments, but investing in a company that has a strategic plan with good outlooks, enabling you to invest your money and savings and to reap the benefits over the medium and long term. We'll keep an eye on it, I agree with you, but it is yet a bit too soon to have a clear vision. I repeat, there will be technological change, but also the need for controls and for ethics. Thank you. Let's move on to voting.
I'll give the floor now to Mr. Suet.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Let me remind you of the purpose of each resolution proposed by the board. You have the text of each resolution, including notice of meeting. Voting will be done using tablets. Only instruction, don't forget to validate your point, otherwise it will not be taken into consideration, and the results will be displayed for each resolution. The final quorum is 53.45%, accounted for 414,000,200+ shares for 25,500+ shareholders. We can now move on to resolution number one. Approval of consolidated financial statements for the year 2022. You may now vote. Don't forget to validate. Time's up. The resolution is adopted to the extent of 99.35%. Second resolution on the annual financial statements. You may now vote.
Don't forget to validate. Time's up. Resolution carries 99.29%. Third resolution. Approval of earnings 2022, dividend of EUR 1.70 per share. Second secondment on May 30, 2023. Payment on or after June 2023. You may now vote. Don't forget to validate. Time's up. The resolution is adopted, 98.49%. Fourth resolution, approval of the statutory auditor's report on regulated agreements which was presented earlier. You may now vote. Don't forget to validate. Time's up. Resolution adopted, 99.62%. Fifth resolution, the compensation policy for the Chairman of the Board of Directors presented earlier by Jérôme Contamine. You may now vote. Don't forget to validate. Time is up. Resolution is adopted, 93.66%. Sixth resolution, compensation policy for the Chief Executive Officer and the Deputy Chief Executive Officers, presented in detail by Jérôme Contamine.
You may now begin to vote. Don't forget to validate. Stop voting. The resolution is carried, 78.73%. 7th resolution, the director compensation policy, which remains unchanged. You may now vote. Don't forget to validate. Time's up. The resolution is adopted, 92.41%. eighth resolution, approval of the report on the compensation of corporate officers. You may now vote. Don't forget to validate. Time's up. Resolution adopted, 95.14%. 9th resolution, approval of the compensation paid in 2022 or awarded to Mr. Lorenzo Bini Smaghi. This too was presented earlier. You may now vote. Don't forget to validate. Time's up. Adopted, 93.50%. The 10th resolution, approval of compensation paid in 2022 or allocated in respect of 2022 to Mr. Frédéric Oudéa, presented in detail by Jérôme de Contamine. You may now vote. Don't forget to validate.
Time's up. Resolution adopted, 92.96%. 11th resolution: Approval of compensation paid to Mr. Philippe Aymerich, also presented to you. You may now vote. Don't forget to validate. Time's up. Resolution carried, 93.70%. 12th resolution: approval of compensation paid or awarded in respect of 2022 to Mrs. Diony Lebot, also presented to you in detail. You may now vote. Don't forget to validate. Time's up. Resolution adopted, 93.30%. 13th resolution: advise your opinion on compensation paid in 2022 to regulated persons. You may now vote. Don't forget to validate. Time's up. Resolution is adopted, 97.78%. 14th resolution: appointment of Mr. Slawomir Krupa as director. You may now vote. Don't forget to validate. Time's up. Mr. Slawomir Krupa is elected with 98.74%. 15th resolution: appointment of Mrs. Béatrice Cossa-Dumurgier as director.
You may now vote. Don't forget to validate. Time is up. Madame Cossa-Dumurgier is elected with 88.57% of votes. 16th resolution: appointment of Mrs. Ulrika Ekman as director. You may now vote. Don't forget to validate. Time's up. Madame Ekman is elected with 98.94% of votes cast. 17th resolution: appointment of Mr. Benoît de Ruffray as director. You may now vote. Don't forget to validate. Time's up. Mr. Benoît de Ruffray is elected with 94.50% of votes cast. 18th resolution: authorization to buy back shares for a duration of 18 months, up to 10% of capital. You may now vote. Don't forget to validate. Time's up. Resolution adopted with 98.64% of votes cast.
19th resolution: authorization of capital increases reserved for employees with a ceiling of 1.5% of capital and a discount of 20%. You may now vote. Don't forget to validate. Time is up. Resolution carried with 97.57% of votes cast. 20th resolution: an amendment to with respect to the term of office of directors representing employees and bringing all the terms of office of directors to four years. You may now vote. Don't forget to validate. Time's up. The resolution is adopted, 99.10%. 21st resolution, amendment to an article of the articles of association concerning the age limit for the chairman of the Board of Directors. This was presented earlier by Gérard Mestrallet. You may now vote. Don't forget to validate. Time's up. The resolution is adopted with 96.79% of votes cast.
The 22nd resolution, lastly, on powers. You may now vote. Don't forget to validate. Time is up. The resolution's adopted, 99.66% of votes cast.
Thank you, Patrick. Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you for your votes which show your trust. Thank you, Frédéric, for 15 years. Congratulations to Slawomir for his election. We will meet again on the 22nd of May, 2024. All the best to you and have a great evening.