The future starts here, by knowing how to invent it!

This year’s Vivatech technology show, which invited us to “Live the future”, has just closed its doors. Personally, I saw a lot of enthusiasm and an undeniable openness from all the companies present. Over half the firms of the CAC40 took part, alongside a multitude of startups. We were there to present a number of the internal startups and partners involved in the development of our activities both in Europe and in Africa.

Opening up to the ecosystem, forging commercial partnerships with startups and seizing the opportunities offered by new technologies are, for us, absolutely essential in reinventing our banking services. 

The tech revolution and the arrival of new players disrupting every sector of the economy have made us all look to make changes. 

In the banking sector, the level of disruption varies by customer type: it is stronger and faster in service relationships with individuals and professionals than with SMEs and, in particular, large corporates, due to the diversity of these relationships and the complexity of their needs. In any event, innovation is the key to offering a better service to all categories of customer, with more personalisation and immediacy, and all at a lower cost.

Opening up to the ecosystem, forging commercial partnerships with startups and seizing the opportunities offered by new technologies are, for us, absolutely essential in reinventing our banking services. 

We have also sought to bring our colleagues with us on this digital adventure, and to encourage them to see it positively and as an opportunity to do more and better for our customers. 

Over the last years, we have made considerable progress towards achieving a certain digital maturity – whether in technological, human or cultural aspects – as was shown by the No.1 slot achieved by Societe Generale in the 2018 e-CAC40 Awards. To get this far we have had to shake up the way we do things in every area. 

We have entered into multiple partnerships with the startup and innovation ecosystems, changed our IT development methods and our organisation, as well as launching new services and business models to serve our customers more effectively. 

We have also sought to bring our colleagues with us on this digital adventure, and to encourage them to see it positively and as an opportunity to do more and better for our customers. For example, we have focused on our own talents by launching the Internal Startup Call, a major internal entrepreneurship programme. The results have exceeded our expectations, with more than 600 ideas suggested, 60 internal startups incubated and around 30 entering the development phase. 

This highly virtuous cycle has shown that the interaction between technology, banking and entrepreneurs is a very powerful route to creating innovation and finding relevant and concrete methods of application.  For example, Clipeum aims to connect all of France’s banks around the Know Your Client function via a tool that enables banks to work together to optimise efficiency for the benefit of their customers; Forge tests different disruptive solutions based on crypto-assets and Blockchain technology to develop new activities on the capital markets; and LaVilleE+? offers strategy coaching to real estate organisations (towns and cities, regional development companies, etc.) and is working on the development of smart cities via disruptive methods. These are just some of the gems that have emerged thanks to the Internal Startup Call and which are preparing to break new ground as we speak!

More than ever, I’m convinced that the most successful banks in the coming years will be those that knew how to best combine innovation and responsibility. 

We are now entering a new phase, where we want to scale up all our digital developments and make a real difference in improving services for all our customers across the world.

This second phase will be marked by an open bank strategy in which we will integrate the services offered by startups through an online banking platform and where we will also offer our products and services to external players. 

We also need to exploit all the potential of data and Artificial Intelligence (AI). This is a major revolution that should enable us to be much more efficient in terms of our marketing activities and our ability to manage all types of risk. The banking sector has reached a turning point: differentiation will come from our ability to offer personalised services as well as improving the efficiency of our internal processes using AI, which should enhance satisfaction levels both for our customers and our staff.

At the same time, we will have to meet extremely high standards of responsibility in order to preserve our role as a trusted third party, which represents a competitive advantage over all new market entrants. More than ever, we need to maintain the security of our IT systems and our customer data. This is our primary concern in terms of responsibility. 

We must also continue to prepare and train our staff, as well as work to improve the gender balance in technology. This is why we have partnered with 50Intech – which we announced at Vivatech – to help women raise financing through a dedicated social network and actionable tools.

Having a positive impact must be at the heart of how we innovate, develop, produce, think and support our staff to continually improve our approach in meeting our customers’ expectations and making a contribution to the major social issues. More than ever, I’m convinced that the most successful banks in the coming years will be those that knew how to best combine innovation and responsibility. 

So, the future definitely starts here, by knowing how to invent it!