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Are you a client? You should contact your private banker. 
You are not a client but would like to have more information about Societe Generale Private Banking? Please fill in the form below.

Local contacts

France: +33 (0)1 53 43 87 00 (9am - 6pm)
Luxembourg: +352 47 93 11 1 (8:30am - 5:30pm)
Monaco: +377 97 97 58 00 (9/12am - 2/5pm)
Switzerland: Geneva +41 22 819 02 02
& Zurich +41 44 218 56 11 (8:30am - 5:30pm)

You would like to contact us about the protection of your personal data?

Please contact the Data Protection Officer of Societe Generale Private Banking France by sending an email to the following address: protectiondesdonnees@societegenerale.fr.

Please contact the Data Protection Officer of Societe Generale Luxembourg by sending an email to the following address: lux.dpooffice@socgen.com.

For customers residing in Italy, please contact BDO, the external provider in charge of Data Protection, by sending an email to the following address: lux.dpooffice-branch-IT@socgen.com

Please contact the Data Protection Officer of Societe Generale Private Banking Monaco by sending an email to the following address: list.mon-privmonaco-dpo@socgen.com

Please contact the Data Protection Officer of Societe Generale Private Banking Switzerland by sending an email to the following address : ch-dataprotection@socgen.com

You need to make a claim?

Societe Generale Private Banking aims to provide you with the best possible quality of service. However, difficulties may sometimes arise in the operation of your account or in the use of the services made available to you.

Your private banker  is your privileged contact to receive and process your claim.

 If you disagree with or do not get a response from your advisor, you can send your claim to the direction  of Societe Generale Private Banking France by email to the following address: FR-SGPB-Relations-Clients@socgen.com or by mail to: 

Société Générale Private Banking France
29 boulevard Haussmann CS 614
75421 Paris Cedex 9

Societe Generale Private Banking France undertakes to acknowledge receipt of your claim within 10 (ten) working days from the date it is sent and to provide you with a response within 2 (two) months from the same date. If we are unable to meet this 2 (two) month deadline, you will be informed by letter.

In the event of disagreement with the bank  or of a lack of response from us within 2 (two) months of sending your first written claim, or within 15 (fifteen) working days for a claim about a payment service, you may refer the matter free of charge, depending on the nature of your claim, to:  

 

The Consumer Ombudsman at the FBF

The Consumer Ombudsman at the Fédération Bancaire Française (FBF – French Banking Federation) is competent for disputes relating to services provided and contracts concluded in the field of banking operations (e.g. management of deposit accounts, credit operations, payment services etc.), investment services, financial instruments and savings products, as well as the marketing of insurance contracts.

The FBF Ombudsman will reply directly to you within 90 (ninety) days from the date on which she/he receives all the documents on which the request is based. In the event of a complex dispute, this period may be extended. The FBF Ombudsman will formulate a reasoned position and submit it to both parties for approval.

The FBF Ombudsman can be contacted on the following website: www.lemediateur.fbf.fr or by mail at:

Le Médiateur de la Fédération Bancaire Française
CS 151
75422 Paris CEDEX 09

 

The Ombudsman of the AMF

The Ombudsman of the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF - French Financial Markets Authority) is also competent for disputes relating to investment services, financial instruments and financial savings products.

For this type of dispute, as a consumer customer, you have therefore a choice between the FBF Ombudsman and the AMF Ombudsman. Once you have chosen one of these two ombudsmen, you can no longer refer the same dispute to the other ombudsman.

The AMF Ombudsman can be contacted on the AMF website: www.amf-france.org/fr/le-mediateur or by mail at:

Médiateur de l'AMF, Autorité des Marchés Financiers
17 place de la Bourse
75082 PARIS CEDEX 02
FRANCE


The Insurance Ombudsman

The Insurance Ombudsman is competent for disputes concerning the subscription, application or interpretation of insurance contracts.

The Insurance Ombudsman can be contacted using the contact details that must be mentioned in your insurance contract.

To ensure that your requests are handled effectively, any claim addressed to Societe Generale Luxembourg should be sent to:

Private banking Claims department
11, Avenue Emile Reuter
L-2420 Luxembourg

Or by email to clienteleprivee.sglux@socgen.com and for customers residing in Italy at societegenerale@unapec.it

The Bank will acknowledge your request within 10 working days and provide a response to your claim within 30 working days of receipt. If your request requires additional processing time (e.g. if it involves complex research), the Bank will inform you of this situation within the same 30-working day timeframe.

In the event that the response you receive does not meet your expectations, we suggest the following:

Initially, you may wish to contact the Societe Generale Luxembourg Division responsible for handling claims, at the following address:

Corporate Secretariat of Societe Generale Luxembourg
11, Avenue Emile Reuter
L-2420 Luxembourg

If the response from the Division responsible for claims does not resolve the claim, you may wish to contact Societe Generale Luxembourg's supervisory authority, the “Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier”/“CSSF” (Luxembourg Financial Sector Supervisory Commission):

By mail: 283, Route d’Arlon L-1150 Luxembourg
By email:
direction@cssf.lu

Any claim addressed to Societe Generale Private Banking Monaco should be sent by e-mail to the following address: servicequalite.privmonaco@socgen.com or by mail to our dedicated department: 

Societe Generale Private Banking Monaco
Middle Office – Service Réclamation 
11 avenue de Grande Bretagne
98000 Monaco

The Bank will acknowledge your request within 2 working days after receipt and provide a response to your claim within a maximum of 30 working days of receipt. If your request requires additional processing time (e.g. if it involves complex researches…), the Bank will inform you of this situation within the same 30-working day timeframe. 

In the event that the response you receive does not meet your expectations, we suggest to contact the Societe Generale Private Banking Direction that handles the claims by mail at the following address: 

Societe Generale Private Banking Monaco
Secrétariat Général
11 avenue de Grande Bretagne 
98000 Monaco

Any claim addressed to the Bank can be sent by email to:

sgpb-reclamations.ch@socgen.com
 

Clients may also contact the Swiss Banking Ombudsman: 

www.bankingombudsman.ch

 

Personal finance and Summer reads: what do personality tests teach us?

For many of us, the summer months are synonymous with holiday and relaxation; a time for easy breezy reading featuring all manner of tests and quizzes… and perhaps a horoscope or two for fun. Such summer reads also provide interesting insight into how we perceive descriptions of who we are, ultimately feeding into decision bias. Edouard Camblain, our behavioural finance expert and Head of Strategic Projects & Development at Societe Generale Private Banking, tells us more.

“While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them”

This statement probably resonates with you. Keep reading all the same if it does not: you would be surprised just how many people it does “apply” to, and we can learn a thing or two from analysing it. 

Also, we did not choose it by chance… in fact, it was not even written for this article! It comes from a scientific paper(1) published in 1948 to demonstrate the fallacious logic of the personal validation and gullibility of individuals. In it, the author American psychologist Bertram Forer carries out an experiment with a group of students. Without telling them the purpose of the experiment (a research paper), he asked the students to agree or disagree with a short list of basic statements (for example: “some of your aspirations tend to be pretty unrealistic”) based on which Forer would draw up a supposedly personalised psychological profile. While the students gave different answers, they all received the same profile description: a series of statements taken from horoscopes. They were each asked to rate how well the profile matched their perception of their own personality. The average score was around 4.3 on a scale of 0 to 5 

This tendency to apply a vague personality description to oneself was coined the “Forer effect”, named after the researcher, or the “Barnum effect”. P.T. Barnum was a showman who in the 1850s invented the “cold reading” method which involved calling out general statements to a member of an audience who would interpret them as uncannily suited to their personality! The literature supporting the "Barnum effect" was reviewed and summarised by two Americans researchers(2) . They reveal that the “Barnum effect” is reinforced by: 
- the trust placed in the person making the statements;
- the target’s belief that the content is uniquely destined for them;
- the prevalence of positive statements (as opposed to negative ones). 

“At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing”

Another statement straight from Bertram Forer’s paper that segues rather well into our reflection on the impact the Barnum effect can have on our financial decisions.

Forer’s experiment was mainly to warn us how gullibility can make us particularly vulnerable to all sorts of financial scams. We therefore need to keep our wits about us and remain circumspect when were are pitched financial products. Without systematically suspecting dishonesty, we must be wary of “Barnum statements” by which universal statements are passed off as unique. That company we should invest supposedly for its “competitive advantage”? Keep in mind that at some point, all companies have a niche business, a particular regulatory authorisation, or a solid management team.

Thanks to researchers, we know how certain factors can make so-called personalised advice sound even more so. Keep your instincts well-honed! If an asset allocation or a financial product is presented as “uniquely adapted to your needs”, ask yourself if it really does fit with your family situation and financial position. You may be convincing yourself that it is, just as you would when reading your personal horoscope.

But for now, let’s get back to our summer quizzes and horoscopes. Perhaps with a little bit more to think about!

 


(1) Paper published in 1949 entitled The fallacy of personal validation, a classroom demonstration of gullibility, 
https://apsychoserver.psych.arizona.edu/jjbareprints/psyc621/forer_the%20fallacy%20of%20personal%20validation_1949.pdf


(2) Paper published in 1985 entitled The Barnum Effect in Personality Assessment: A Review of the Literature,

https://cortecs.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/the-barnum-effect-in-personality-assessment-a-review-of-the-literature.pdf

Grille Disclaimer

GENERAL WARNING:

Societe Generale Private Banking is the Societe Generale Group business line operating through its registered office within Societe Generale S.A. and departments, branches or subsidiaries, located in the territories mentioned below, acting under the brand name “Société Générale Private Banking” and distributors of this document.

This document, of an advertising nature, has no contractual value. Its content is not intended to provide an investment service, it does not constitute investment advice or a personalised recommendation on a financial product, or a personalised advice or recommendation on insurance, or a solicitation of any kind, legal, accounting or tax advice from any entity reporting to Société Générale Private Banking.

The information contained is for information purposes only, may be modified without prior notice, and is intended to communicate information that may be useful for decision-making. Any information on past performance reproduced does not guarantee future performance.

The private bankers of the Société Générale Private Banking entities are available to potential investors to provide them with more information on the variations, within the Société Générale Private Banking entity concerned, the theme presented in this document.
This document is confidential, intended exclusively for the person who consults it, and may not be communicated or disclosed to third parties, nor reproduced in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of the Société Générale Private Banking entity concerned.

No entity reporting to Société Générale Private Banking may under any circumstances be held liable for any decision taken by an investor based solely on the information contained in this document.

The Societe Generale Group maintains an effective administrative organisation taking all necessary measures to identify, control and manage conflicts of interest. To this end, Societe Generale Private Banking entities have put in place a conflict of interest management policy to manage and prevent conflicts of interest. For more details, Societe Generale Private Banking clients can refer to the conflict of interest policy available on request from their private banker. 

Societe Generale Private Banking has also put in place a policy for handling complaints made by its clients, available upon request from their private banker or on the Societe Generale Private Banking website (www.privatebanking.societegenerale.com).

SPECIFIC WARNINGS BY JURISDICTION 

France: Unless expressly stated otherwise, this document is published and distributed by Société Générale, a French bank authorised and supervised by the Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution, 4, place de Budapest, CS 92459, 75436 Paris Cedex 09, under the prudential supervision of the European Central Bank (“ECB”) and registered with ORIAS as an insurance intermediary under number 07 022 493 orias.fr. Societe Generale is a French limited company with capital of €1,010,261,206.25 at 1 February 2023, with its registered office located at 29 boulevard Haussmann, 75009 Paris, and with a unique identification number of 552 120 222 R.C.S. Paris. More details are available on request or at www.privatebanking.societegenerale.com.  

Luxembourg: This document is distributed in Luxembourg by Société Générale Luxembourg, a public limited company registered with the Luxembourg Trade and Companies Register under number B 6061 and an authorised credit institution governed by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (“CSSF”), under the prudential supervision of the European Central Bank (“ECB”), whose registered office is located at 11 avenue Émile Reuter – L 2420 Luxembourg.  More details are available on request or at www.societegenerale.lu. No investment decision of any kind could result from reading this document alone. Société Générale Luxembourg accepts no responsibility for the accuracy or other characteristics of the information contained in this document. Societe Generale Luxembourg accepts no responsibility for the actions taken by the addressee of this document solely on the basis of this document, and Societe Generale Luxembourg does not present itself as providing advice, in particular as regards investment services. The opinions, views and forecasts expressed in this document (including its annexes) reflect the personal opinions of the author/authors and do not reflect the opinions of other persons or of Société Générale Luxembourg, unless otherwise stated. This document was prepared by Société Générale.  The CSSF has not carried out any analysis, verification or control over the content of this document.   

Monaco: This document is distributed in Monaco by Société Générale Private Banking (Monaco) S.A.M., located at 11 avenue de Grande Bretagne, 98000 Monaco, Principality of Monaco, governed by the Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution and the Commission de Contrôle des Activités Financiers. Financial products marketed in Monaco may be reserved to qualified investors in accordance with the provisions of Law No. 1.339 of 07/09/2007 and Sovereign Order No. 1.285 of 10/09/2007.  More details are available on request or at www.privatebanking.societegenerale.com.

Switzerland: This document may constitute advertising within the meaning of the Financial Services Act (“FinSA”). It is distributed in Switzerland by SOCIETE GENERALE Private Banking (Switzerland) SA (“SGPBS” or the “Bank”), whose head office is located at rue du Rhône 8, CH-1204 Geneva. SGPBS is a bank authorised by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). This document cannot be considered as investment advice or recommendation by SGPBS. The Bank recommends obtaining professional advice before acting or not acting on the basis of this document and accepts no responsibility for the content of this document. Financial instruments, including in particular units of collective investment schemes and structured products, may only be offered in accordance with FinSA. Further information is available on request from SGPBS or at www.privatebanking.societegenerale.com.

This document is not distributed by SG Kleinwort Hambros Bank Limited in the United Kingdom or by its branches in Jersey, Guernsey and Gibraltar acting together under the brand name “Kleinwort Hambros”. Consequently, the information provided and any offers, activities and financial and wealth information presented do not concern these entities and may not be authorised by these entities or adapted in these territories. Further information on the activities of Societe Generale’s private banking entities located in the territories of the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands and Gibraltar, including additional legal and regulatory information, are available at www.kleinworthambros.com.

Édouard Camblain Investment Advisor