The French banking group has issued results for the second quarter and first half of 2015, showing a slight rise in assets held by its private banking arm.

The private banking arm of Paris-headquartered Societe Generale today reported that assets under management stood at €116.5 billion ($126.6 billion) at the end of June this year, a gain of 0.7 per cent from the same date last year amid positive net inflows and favourable market movements.

Net banking income rose 11.0 per cent in the half-year period from a year earlier, to €440 million, the banking group said in a statement.

The gross margin of this business was 110 basis points at the end of June this year, Societe Generale said.

Within asset and wealth management as a whole, net banking income was €556 million in the first half of 2015, a 9 per cent rise on a year ago.

At the bank’s Lyxor asset management business, the firm said its AuM ended the period to 30 June with €99.5 billion, logging an inflow of €6.0 billion, mainly through Lyxor’s exchange traded funds business. Lyxor’s revenues totalled €104 million, up 6.1 per cent, in the half-year period.

Across all divisions of Societe Generale, the bank said it logged group net income of €2.219 billion in the half-year period, surging 77.8 per cent year-on-year.

“In a still very low interest rate environment, French retail banking continued to win new customers, while international retail banking and financial services’ revenues grew in all activities excluding Russia,” the bank said.

At the end of June, the bank had a Basel III common equity tier one (CET1) capital ratio – a commonly-used standard of a bank’s financial strength – of 10.4 per cent, up by 31 basis points from 31 March, exceeding the targets it set for the end of 2016. By that time, Societe Generale said it expected this CET1 ratio to be around 11 per cent.