Committed to small businesses

SME Pact

The aim of Societe Generale's SME Pact is to help innovative small businesses in France in penetrating the large corporates market. Societe Generale, which was the first bank to sign the SME Pact in December 2007, is committed to supporting innovative small businesses which, combined with the expertise of its own teams, afford it an even greater competitive edge. The SME Pact gives the Group - which already devotes close to one-third of its purchasing budget to products and services from small businesses - new avenues and partnerships to explore.
Signing the Pact was an opportunity for Societe Generale to rethink its purchasing policy in order to enable smaller companies to successfully bid for Group contracts. Since 2008, the Group has taken part in 4 SME Pact seminars and put 35 innovative small and medium-sized businesses in touch with numerous representatives from the bank's business lines and divisions.

SME Pact Seminars

  • June 18, 2008: "Immersive web, Green IT and IT security"
  • December 2, 2008: "Mobile services"
  • October 1, 2009: "Man and Innovative Machine Interfaces"
  • February 4, 2010: "E-reputation, threat or opportunity for businesses?" and "Shared communication solutions for Web 2.0 users"

Charter of the Credit Mediation Office and CDAF

On June 28, 2010, in the presence of Christine Lagarde, French Minister for Economic Affairs, Industry and Employment, Françoise Mercadal-Delasalles, Head of Group Corporate Resources, signed the Charter of the Credit Mediation Office and CDAF (the association of purchasing managers in France) governing relations between major companies and small and medium-sized businesses.
This charter commits its major signatories to improving their relations with suppliers, and especially with small and medium-sized companies. It sets out 10 commitments to responsible purchasing, such as financial fairness with suppliers, facilitating collaboration between major purchasers and key suppliers, reducing mutual dependency risks between customers and suppliers, assessing total costs, ensuring company territorial responsibility and acknowledging the environmental aspects involved, etc.
In signing this charter, Societe Generale, as a major purchaser, marks its commitment to implementing these best practices and establishing a climate of mutual trust with its suppliers.