The asset and wealth management segment of the Paris-listed banking group said it logged net banking income of €1.038 billion last year, down slightly from €1.072 billion a year earlier; net income was €218 million, from €271 million, it said in a statement.

Private banking assets under management stood at €108 billion at the end of 2014, up from €84 billion at the end of 2013; the bank said there had been an inflow of €4.2 billion last year, partly offsetting last March’s sale, completed later in the year, of the Asian private banking business to Singapore-headquartered DBS.

Last year, SocGen embarked on restructuring its French private banking client relationship model, also developing a new offering in countries such as Croatia, it said in a statement yesterday.

Group results

For the banking and investment business as a whole, SocGen said net banking income was €26.3 billion, a 5 per cent year-on-year increase; operating costs fell 1.9 per cent from a year earlier. The net cost of risk fell sharply, down 25.2 per cent from 2013. The group had a fully loaded Basel 3 CET1 ratio – a measure of its capital strength – of 10.1 per cent, up from 10 per cent on a year before.

The banking group, like some of its European peers, is reporting at a time when there has been, and continues to be, uncertainty in the eurozone and further afield, such as in Ukraine and Russia.

SocGen said its figures included -€725 million of non-recurring costs relating to the refocusing of its consumer finance business at the end of last year and goodwill write-downs on international retail banking and financial services activities in Russia.

The bank is proposing to pay a €1.2 per share dividend in cash.