Société Générale Société anonyme (GLE) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, I'm happy to welcome you at our Annual General Meeting. It has been 2 years now that the new Board -- new general management appointed by the Board in May 2023 has been set up. We have gone a long way since. The group's organization has been revamped. Its staff has been reorganized on key functions. It has a better gender quality and is more diverse, in terms of the current Board and the Executive Committee. This strategy was announced in autumn 2023 with a clear goal, so 2026 that I recall last year, in particular, making Societe Generale a European bank, top rank, robust and sustainable, taking onboard SG in strategy and increasing its financial robustness, improving its operational efficiency with clear targets for 2026, with a capital of 13% and operating income below 60% and the profitability between 9% and 10%. Since the end of 2023, the Board of Directors and general management have sought quarter after quarter to execute its strategy. And since the second half of last year, we have started to see the results, and you too have started to see the results. The macroeconomic, monetary and geopolitical environment can only urge us to be extremely vigilant. And every day, the new events in national economic appears and with the current conflicts ongoing. Slawomir Krupa will tell us more about that in just a few moments. But in this context, let me also renew the trust placed by the Board in the bank's ability. And in the employees' ability and general management's ability to rise to the challenges that will certainly arise, and to attain the goals that have been set. Throughout this period, the trust that you have expressed, ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, have played a key role. It is now time to start the joint ordinary, extraordinary general meeting that is held at first notice of meeting -- according to the notice published in the mandatory journal on the 14th of April 2025. The quorum is 64.28% meaning 480,246,940 shares for 25,721 shareholders. This is the record high quorum in the past 10 years. The general meeting can therefore be duly conducted. The final quorum will be announced just after we vote on the resolutions. All the written questions and answers are available on the general meeting's website, and we'll come back to that at the end of this meeting. Around me on stage to speak with you, we have Slawomir Krupa, General Director; and Pierre Palmieri, Deputy Director General. Our -- throughout the general meeting -- Leopoldo Alvear will talk about the financial results, and I will talk about strategy with our General Director, Slawomir Krupa. And then a specific item on the agenda, devoted to CSR and the climate with Pierre Palmieri. And then we'll speak about corporate governance. I will do that myself and then we will speak about compensation with Jerome Contamine on the Remuneration Committee followed by a debate, and we will then vote on the resolutions. We can now form the bureau for a general meeting. Appointed to sit as vote tellers are the 2 shareholders that have accepted this function and who hold the largest number of votes in person and in proxy, Madam [indiscernible] representing BNP Paribas Asset Management; and Mr. [indiscernible] representing Amundi. I would like to thank you warmly for your approval and also suggest that we should vote the Secretary of this meeting. Patrick Suet, Secretary of the Board.

The statutory auditors have been convened according to the legal procedures and regulations, Mr. Emmanuel Benoist representing PricewaterhouseCoopers; Mr. [ Guillaume Meignin ], representing KPMG S.A. Lastly, I have on the desk, the usual documents that are listed. Let me add the documents and legal requirements prior to the general meeting listed as well were also put online on the Societe Generale website, and sent to the shareholders or kept at the SG headquarters. As each year, our discussions will be broadcast live and on the Internet, and will be accessible subsequent on our website. As each year, we conducted a survey amongst individual shareholders to prepare this general meeting. 4,071 shareholders, individual shareholders consulted, responded. The survey shows us each year, your interest, first of all, for strategy, secondly for results and the financial robustness of our group. And thirdly dividend and the compensation policy. And then the compensation of our managers, risk management and CSR. All of these topics will be covered. And we will come back to that later on our discussions if you so wish. For the organization of our discussions, let me point out that at the entry to this, we will have employees who can answer all your questions as clients. So all your questions linked to your relationship directly, personally with the bank, you have people at the entrance to this auditorium who can help you. Let me also point that this meeting is broadcast over the Internet. But we see to it that each and every one, we respect each and every one of you because we will not broadcast any images of the participants at the general meeting even when they have questions, so rest be assured. Ladies and gentlemen, it is now time to give the floor to Leopoldo Alvear, who is the CFO of our group, who will be presenting the results for 2024. Leopoldo was appointed in 2025, and he'll be speaking in English, but you will have simultaneous interpreting so that you can follow what he has to tell us. Please welcome, for the very first time, Leopoldo.

Welcome. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm very happy to be here and to take the floor for you today as the new CFO. I am delighted to have joined this wonderful company with a long-standing history and a promising future. With respect to the financial report. First of all, I'll tell you about the year's financial results in 2024. And then I will comment on the financial goals set for 2025. And lastly, we look at the results for the first quarter of 2025, which were published on the 30th of April last. Please allow me to continue in English. [Foreign Language] I will look to conclude in French. We have published excellent results with a strong growth income and an improvement of the operational lever in all of our midyear position of capital and equity, which is solid and our model, which is at once robust and resilient, enables us to be well positioned in the current environment. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Now Emmanuel Benoist -- for the statutory auditors, Emmanuel Benoist. This is the first general assembly for our sustainability auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers and KPMG. Mr. Benoist.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, in the name of your college of statutory auditors, I'm going to summarize all of our reports, which are in the documentation, which has been provided to you, starting with audit reports on the consolidated accounts and annual accounts for the 2024 fiscal year. The objective of our assignment is to ensure that the regularity, the sincerity and that the accounts are reflected as they should be with no significant anomaly after our work. We certify with no reservation that the consolidated and annual accounts signed off by your Board and that we have been asked to approve today. In the context of the justification of our appreciation, we would like to draw to your attention the nine key points relating to the risk of significant anomalies, which according to our professional judgment, were the major ones in light of the audit this year. Six, look at the consolidated accounts and annual accounts. This is the assessment of the depreciations on loans of the valuation of the financial instruments of Level 2 and 3, of the assessment of legal risks or fiscal risk, of the character of recovering deferred fiscal assets in France, of IT controls linked to two market activities and to the hedging of right value for the rate risk on the basis of the portfolios of retail banking in France. Two other points, looking just at consolidated accounts, it's a reassessment of the residual value of the cars and vehicles put it in the location. And the insurance elements, which have been put into direct elements for variable commissions. A key point of the auditor looks at individual points. It's the assessment of the securities and other securities held in the long term and shares in linked companies. With regard to the report of management of the group, no observations with regard to the sincerity and concordance with consolidated and annual accounts and no observations to formulate after the other verifications and checks due under legislation. And notably, the report of the governance of enterprise and the management report. Allow me now to summarize a special report on the regulated agreements. We have to communicate to you on the basis of information provided to us the features, characteristics, essential modalities and the motives justifying the interest of your company of the agreements that we have been advised about or that we would have discovered in the context of assignment without having to pronounce ourselves on their well-being or to look for the existence of other agreements. In this context, we are informing you today that there was no authorized mention provided to us for the fiscal year [ looked at ] and the others or the execution would have been carried out in the context of the past fiscal year. Reports on capital now, the delegation of competence, which is given to your Board through the resolution 20 to proceed to the issuance of ordinary shares, calls no observations from us with regard to its principle and its modalities. That said, the final conditions in which this issuing would be done have not been set today. We are, of course, not giving them an opinion on that or the proposal of the suppression of preferential right of subscription which is in Resolution 20. Finally, our company published for the first time this year in its management reports, information pertaining to sustainability with the -- for the directive CSRD and how that is applied in France. The college of statutory auditors gave a report settling this limited assurance. So with regard to the process of double materiality, information on sustainability, information regarding taxonomy with the rules applicable, notably the standards of CSRS (sic) [ CSRD ]. On the basis of the work carried out, we concluded that there were no errors identified, omissions or incoherences, which would be major. We have -- one, we have a few observations, which don't call into question the exercise. I thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Benoist. So before giving the floor to Slawomir Krupa, the Chief Executive Officer, looking at strategy and execution of strategy, a quick film. [Presentation]

Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, I'm delighted to be with you here in la Defense, under this dome of [indiscernible] which is to pay homage to industry and techniques. So we finally echo the principles of Societe Generale founded, as you know, 161 years ago in order to favor the development of business and industry, we are not far from our towers of the [indiscernible] where 12,000 staff work on the solidity and the success of your bank. Allow me to start by thanking warmly all the teams of the group, Societe Generale, throughout the world for all the work accomplished. And thank you, shareholders -- dear shareholders, for your trust and for your support to our strategic remodeling. When I spoke to you for the first time in the last general assembly, our group was just starting this strategic overhaul. And I'm not here today to say that this transformation is over, far from it. I will try and representing all the pathway that lies ahead of us because of the work, which we still need to accomplish is bigger than that. It has been until now. I'm thinking. That said, that you are starting to see encouraging signs. And especially above all, we have shown that we were holding the commitments taken in front of you. Just over 18 months now, we unveiled a new strategy to transform our bank by giving to action a clear pathways, which are summarized here on screen, solidity, simplicity and efficiency and profitability. Today, our bank is more solid with a capital base, which is strongly increased. And that is a major asset as [ one ] strategically. But in any context, all the -- the world has many issues at the moment. Our bank is simpler. Of course, because we have rationalized our portfolio of activities to focus on the core of what we do, the midyear in which we have positions of leader and competitive advantages. Our bank is also starting to be more efficient, more profitable. It's a long pathway, a long journey, but it's a critical one, which will bring us beyond the reduction of the breakeven point of activities to a sea change in our working methods, in our professional culture, which is now really focused more so than ever performance. Our bank is also more committed because we have intensified our actions in the service of climate transition, of energy security and the defense of our continent. I will be presenting the implementation of this road map a bit more in detail with a few tables. First off, to be a solid bank with more capital. As you know, capital is the building block of banking activities. On the occasion of our strategic plan, I proposed to the Board, who decided to go ahead with it, to move our capital objective, CET1 up to 13% for 2026. This corresponding to equivalent of over EUR 4 billion -- additional EUR 4 billion. Right from the beginning of my mandate, I shared with you my conviction that we needed to loss the basis of capital. I believe this effort to be necessary for several reasons. We needed to do a mattress of solid equity, anchor the confidence in our group and reinforce our strategic autonomy. With almost 2 years ahead of our schedule, we have gone well on this objective of 13% right from the first quarter of the year 2025, and taking into account the application of the new prudential context of Basel IV. The increase of this basis was done, thanks to organic generation of capital, thanks to the progressive recovery of our performance quarter after quarter, by disciplined allocation of our risk-weighted assets, RWAs. And finally, by the income of sale of activities, which were done in excellent conditions. With this level of capital now, we gave us the means to do our job in a serene manner. And to ensure the risk of dilution, which was affecting negatively the perception of our share, we can now navigate with more confidence through the economic cycles. And we can also grab and seize opportunities of growth organically first off and the service of our clients and the financing of the economy. Second, strategic pathway to be a bank, which is a simple one with a business model, which is more coherent, more integrated between the parties. And with ever stronger synergies between our different [ midyears ] in line with our commitments. We applied strict criteria for analysis of coherence and performance of our portfolio of activities in order to assess the opportunity to carry out with some divestments. We have taken many decisions, and we carried them out in a very short time frame. 13 sales in 2 years, carried out in excellent financial conditions, but also that was our commitment in excellent conditions. For all stakeholders, we ensured that outside the group, the activity would have a sustainable future, for the benefit of the employees, but also their customers. Our [indiscernible] are more eligible and our efforts are better targeted. We have become more coherent, more compact, more efficient. At the same time, in parallel, we continue to invest. And that's maybe what we are the most proud of. Whilst consolidating our capital position, whilst making these major divestments and significant savings, we've continue to invest and to grow to reinforce our major franchises without ever moving away from the imperative of allocating in a disciplined and orderly way our capital. We have implemented the merger of the retail networks in France. 2024 was the main year for the execution of this project, the most intense one. We are also transforming our affiliate in Czech Republic in a radical manner, once technologically but also from an operational point of view. And we have continued to invest in our growth priorities. Thanks to BoursoBank, your group is a leader in the online banking in France. Over 7 million customers in a fully [ grown ] bank with all the array of products and banking service, a leader from a customer satisfaction point of view. BoursoBank is a success in which our group is continuing to invest to carry out further still, higher still. This last quarter, BoursoBank had once again business performances, which -- remarkable with, for instance, in share brokerage, over 3 million custom orders carried out and a growth of 15% of its asset administered. Thanks to Ayvens, the integration of ALD with the LeasePlan implemented from 2023 and your group is now ahead in the solutions of mobility and leasing of vehicles with a fleet of over 3 million vehicles. Integration has continued to progress. Ayvens can now focus all its strength on its development and the increase of its profitability. It is important to underline that at the moment, where the attention of the teams was focused on the merger, Ayvens managed better than most of its competitors to navigate between the difficult and strategic issues linked to the compression of margins and the changes of [ paradigm ] in the segment of electric vehicles. We have also concluded with major financial groups like AllianceBernstein and Brookfield, partnerships, reinforcing our franchises in the bank of financing and investments. Bernstein is amongst the world leaders in research on listed values and cash actions. Our partnership with Brookfield. On the other hand, we enforce this further still, our origination capacity and the efficiency of the distribution of assets that we finance notably in the infrastructures. Finally, we created a SocGen AI, our vehicle to accelerate applied research in a strategic and global manner of advanced technological solutions to increase our performances over the long term, basing ourselves for that on the developments of AI, artificial intelligence. Third objective to be a bank ever more efficient. You can see on the screen here, geographic illustrations, which expressed quantitatively, the improvement of our operational efficiency. As you can see, still a path -- a long path ahead of us that we need to get to, to achieve the 60% in 2026. But we have managed clearly to reverse the trend and to really carry out in a disciplined manner, the reduction -- the structural reduction of our cost base, thanks to our strict management on a daily basis, thanks to the implementation of different programs. What you see here on the screen, targeted on the efficiency of our IT spend, our headquarters costs and in our different midyear. First results are there over the last quarter. Our costs are down by over 4%, excluding, of course, the mechanical impact of the sale of assets. And we are carrying out these efforts ever more because of optimized cost basis, of course, is -- reinforce profitability, but also bigger resilience, a greater capacity to go through the economic cycles unscathed. When there are issues, this optimized cost base reinforces us, but it also protects us. Being a more efficient bank is also increasing the means and time available for our customers with more automation and rationalization of processes. More time for our customers. At the end of the day, it's more customer satisfaction. And in [indiscernible] it's a better-quality company and a more profitable one. And finally, stage in this virtuous circle. It's to be a more profitable bank by structurally improving the profitability of operations through discipline, which I am really -- very firm about that we need to retain this by improving our bank model. We are improving in [indiscernible], the profitability of the capital that you, our shareholders, have invested in us, and we are responsible in front of you. In progressive increase of profitability is a positive consequence of our transformation. But of course, still much progress to be made to attain the 10% RoTE in 2026, and to go beyond that further still by projecting ourselves resolutely in the competition between the very best European banks, their performances of today are still better than us. But you can count on us. You can count on our engagement to honor the confidence you put in us and the support that you bring us. Our objectives are clear. Our strategy is bearing fruit. The dynamic is there, and we're going to continue to move forward in the right direction. Our progression may not always be totally linear, but never will we be looking for excuses. Quite the opposite, where there are issues, we will identify reasons to work even more with ever more determination and the service of the creation of sustainable value for you, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders. We have made the first steps. It's true at once with regard to the increase in our share price and through the new policy of distribution announced at the beginning of this year with rate of distribution up to 50% of the net result. This policy is based on the balance between the distribution, which takes a form of monetary dividend, and the buyback of actions, always looking for the best interest of shareholders. On the solid basis, we are going to continue to consolidate our model of value creation, always showing discipline and consistency with regard to execution. We will be just as disciplined in the management of our [indiscernible] capital, our objective, of course, is to operate with the bank at a level of 13% of ratio CET1. And any sustainable [ extent ] will be processed in a rational manner in the proposals of the Director General to the Board, which then decides. We will explain clearly and transparently our choice of allocations of these possible [ excellence, ] may be one-off return to shareholders, organic investments, inorganic investments possibly, always looking to really manage in an optimal and rational manner. This capital which is yours by ensuring that its returns are optimized. The current environment, of course, is very uncertain. We're all concerned, I'm sure you are, with what's happening in the world. These preoccupations are legitimate. And I'll also say if you worry about them today with a bit of perspective, taking a step back with what is occurring with the local -- the current chaos, several configurations that could emerge in the next month with two key parameters, which need to be borne in mind. The first would be a global slowdown economically linked to disruptions in international business system. I mean from tariffs and their consequences on the quantity of goods and products exchanged and services throughout the world, but more profoundly, slowing down linked to the modifications of the chains -- the global chains. The second parameter is a risk of a period of volatility, which could be ongoing for financial markets because of this deep uncertainty. From that point of -- those two points, a multitude of scenarios can be envisaged. But whatever the scenario, which will materialize in the end, we are confident in our capacity to continue to move forward in the right direction. Bearing with uncertainty and managing the risks, of course, this corresponds to what we are as bankers, and we are better placed today to do it. And that's for three reasons. First of all, we have a robust capital position. Well, above regulatory requirements. We have a diversified model as well in our geography and in terms of sectors. I may note that these are geographic zones that are not impacted by tariffs. Our maximum sectoral concentrations represent about 3% of all our exposures. But above all, over the long term, have shown that we have a robust risk management system. We also had a steady level of provisioning. We also benefit from good repositioning of our market activities we structured deeply over the past 3 years, [ the market ] is stable, income is more stable, and it has -- we have reduced risk significantly. Our RWA on the market has been down to 30% since 2025 as compared to 2020. And increase in our stress test consumptions of 70% over the same period. Now today, our clients need us more. Our services, our presence and our support for their needs, for finance liquidity, protection, coverage, hedging, mobility and advise. Our environment is also changing with new opportunities that are available for our business, it is particularly the case in Europe. For example, the economic and budgetary measures announced in several countries such as Germany, development plans for infrastructures or the strengthening of the defense sector and security sectors. Our additional opportunities are real. Supporting business performance, competitiveness, strategic autonomy, independence and the safety of Europe is at the heart of our commitment for the common good of our region. And we are very well positioned to the make the most of this environment. To conclude, I would like quite simply to say that we will continue to move forward with our determination that has remained intact. We're on the right track. We are ahead to attain our different targets we called on screen. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, continue to place your trust in us. And to demand from us rigor and consistency in implementing our road map and our commitments. I reflect to you how proud I am to shoulder the responsibility you entrusted with me and the team of the Societe Generale, the managers of Societe Generale, working every with all our employees, bringing as high as possible the colors of our bank to serve our clients and the sustainable interest of all our stakeholders. We want our group to shine brightly, to occupy the role -- its role, innovate, attracting talents, being the top European -- amongst the European banks, altogether relentlessly and without any hesitation. Thank you for your attention.

Thank you, Slawomir. Very clear. I will now give the floor to Pierre Palmieri to present our strategy in light of the recommendations made by the financial market authority.

Hello, everyone. We have chosen to place sustainability at the heart of the group's strategy. We are determined to remain true to our mission as conceived by the founders of the Societe Generale group over 160 years ago. It is about supporting and facilitating the major transitions and meeting the challenges facing us as a responsible and committed. These challenges have, of course, evolved over time. The climate and energy challenge is major and remains so as the scientific community [indiscernible] at the same time international balances are shifted. Energy sovereignty, European security and competitiveness, and mastery of the technologies of the future are back in the spotlight. Now, building a sustainable future with our clients means having a vision to rise to these long-term challenges, but also it means also developing our business, managing our risks and making a positive contribution to society's challenges. In recent years, we have demonstrated in our ability to attain our goals. Our credibility has been recognized by extra -- financial rating agencies, and we have been awarded several distinctions. Firstly, we are making progress in line with our CSR road map, particularly with regards to our contribution to the environment, social [ vigilance ]. The initial target of contributing EUR 300 billion to sustainable finance was reached in 2024. We announced a new target of EUR 500 billion by 2030, covering both societal and environmental issues. This target echoes the work carried out as part of the alignment of the group's credit in 2024. A significant portion of financing will be devoted to transactions in low-carbon energy, sustainable real estate, low-carbon mobility and also industry and the environmental transition. We're also implementing decarbonization targets for our most carbon-intensive portfolios for which we have set targets. The group has already reduced its exposure to oil and gas production by over 50% since the end of 2019. We maintain a target of 80% less by 2030. With regard to objective of reducing emissions for our own operations, we are in line with our target of minus 50% between 2019 and 2030. We have attained 36% reduction by the end of 2024. At the same time we continue to deploy our solution and expertise to serve our customers, thanks to our environmental and social skills and also thanks to our leading franchises. We offer a wide range of advisory services to our different categories of customers, both individuals and businesses. We provide financial solutions tailored to their needs. For example, our cutting-edge expertise in renewable energy and energy transition is particularly well recognized. That sets us apart in the field of project finance, consulting all over the world. We also contribute to the electrification of our customer [indiscernible] through our subsidiary Ayvens. We also invest in the innovation by supporting the new players and new technologies. For example, we acquired a majority stake in the alternative investment company Reed Management, our aim is to become a leading player in investments in emerging leaders in the energy transition. To strengthen our capacity for action, we enter into partnerships with highly reputed institutions. In 2024, we implemented the partnership agreements signed at the end of 2022 with IFC, the International Finance Corporation, which is the metal of the World Bank. This agreement has led to a number of operations that have facilitated the financing of SMEs and sustainable development projects. We recently signed also an agreement with the European Investment Bank, which aims to unlock up to EUR 8 billion of investment to support wind power manufacturers in Europe. Lastly, in the run-up to the United Nations conference on the oceans to be held in France, I would like to mention that the group is contributing to the preservation of the oceans, notably as a major partner of the Ocean Cleanup which seeks to rid oceans and rivers of plastic pollution. Secondly, we have anchored CSR at the very heart of our activities and at every level of the bank. This is why we launched an ambitious employee training plan to establish common skills base. On the operational front, we rolled out the far-reaching ESG-by-design program, it aims to integrate ESG issues into the group's strategic decisions and processes. This investment has enabled us to meet expectations of the ECB and publish our very first sustainability report. It also enabled us to be clear for the new ESG risk management guidelines issued by the European Banking Authority. We are making steady progress in taking into account the risks associated with climate change, thanks in particular to appropriate governance. The Board of directors approved the strategic orientations proposed by the general management. It also oversees the implementation by integrated CSR issues into its decision-making bodies and notably the Risk Committee. It is assisted in its work by [indiscernible] who is an expert in energy transition. In 2024, we also set up our Scientific Advisory Board. It provides us with insights of leading scientists on the transformations towards [indiscernible] Lastly, we are making progress in our ambition to be a responsible employer. By the end of 2024, around 30% of the group's top 250 mangers will be women. In addition, we have earmarked a budget of EUR 100 million for the reduction of pay gap between men and women by 2026. Being a responsible employer means developing all talents within the -- it is an asset or navigating in the complex environment and to make the company more efficient. In conclusion, our determination to contribute to a sustainable world is intact. It remains intact because it is in the interest of our customers, our employees and, of course, our shareholders. Thank you for your attention.

Thank you, Pierre. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, we'll now move to the part of our general meeting on governance. In the universal registration document on Page 62 -- report on corporate governance. You may read there in detail the activity report by the Board and auditor committees as well as the Chairman's. The Board of directors in 2024 met 14 times, this is to include the committee meetings, 8 meetings in all; nonexecutive members meetings, time spent in planning out the strategy and training sessions. The attendance rate was 98% as in 2023, a very high level of commitment by the Board members. In addition to all the regulatory issues, the Board has devoted a lot of time to strategy to continue to carry out the guidelines announced on Capital Market Day, on the 18th of September 2023 for the period between 2024 and 2026. The Board also validated the CSR strategy and approved the extra financial performance statement. It also worked hard in preparing the first sustainability report contained in universal registration document on Page 278. CSR strategy and the Board's competencies, the committee prepares its work in view of their expertise supported by the [ centers ]. Pierre Palmieri pointed that out earlier, has a role in CSR and helps to draw up the strategy together with the general management. The [indiscernible] took part very actively in preparing the presentation which was just done. And let me inform the meeting that the Board decided to renew for 2 years [indiscernible] until May 2027. You will find in the universal registration document, page -- the summary of work caried out by the Board. This assessment is extremely positive, both in terms of its composition and the quality of it's work. We also saw to increase training for members of the Board, particularly on CSR, but also on artificial intelligence, which is of utmost importance for the future. With respect to my own personal role, I actively take part in contacts with regulators and met shareholders and international investors, in particular, to prepare this general meeting. 2024 was a year we saw major changes in governance. General management since the 1st of November 2024 is composed only of 2-person, Slawomir Krupa, the Director General and Pierre Palmieri, Deputy Director General. Slawomir Krupa is directly in charge of supervising retail banking after departure of Philippe Aymerich, whom I like to thank for his work since 2018 as the Director General in particular for the success of important bank mergers ever carried out in France between Credit du Nord and Societe Generale. The Board of directors saw the resignation of Lubomira Rochet in September. During this meeting, you will be called upon to vote on several renewals and appointments. First of all, I'd like to pay it a tribute to Alexandra Schaapveld, who did not wish to be renewed in her term after 12 years. She chaired the Audit Committee and the Internal Control Committee, took part in the Risk Committee as well. Her expertise in banking, her international experience and above all, her commitment at the moment, in the service of Societe Generale shareholders have been exemplary, and we can give her a round of applause and thank her for the work that she has carried out over the past 10 years. She chaired over 100 meetings of the [indiscernible] committee, the Audit and Internal Control Committee over the years. And now let us move into the appointments -- new appointments to the Board. I would like to begin by proposing as a member of the Board. As a new director, Ingrid-Helen Arnold, a German national. She's spent a good portion of her career, since 1996, in IT and digital. Ingrid-Helen Arnold has had high senior responsibilities at SAP in Germany and in the U.S.A. She also worked at Swiss [indiscernible] as first in charge of IT and digital. On top of her technological skills, which are a key Benefit for the bank, she also has an experience as Board Director at Heineken and TUI. Dear, Ingrid-Helen, would you like to say a few words to our shareholders?

Hello, everyone. I am really delighted to be with you here today and to be able to address you in order to introduce myself. First off, a few words from a personal point of view, who am I? I'm Ingrid-Helen Arnold. I'm 56. I am German. With a profoundly francophile heart. And I would even say a bit french from my heart because I've had the true delight and pleasure to live in Paris 2 years during -- and it's a -- I have a strong, strong attachments and links to French culture. And to my French friends, just to give you an idea who I am and where I'm coming from, from a professional point of view. I have behind me 30 years in the industry of technology with many positions, functions within SAP, other major groups, but also, I've been fortunate enough to invest myself in start-ups and to work in a family company. And those experiences provided me with -- have taught me at any rate, very, very early on that technology is not an objective as such, but it is truly just a means to be at the service of performance to serve of competitivity and efficiency -- operational efficiency. So if I wanted to join the Board of Societe Generale, it's because I'm profoundly convinced that we are living through in a decisive turn point in technology. And technology can really make a difference -- a true difference for Societe Generale for more sustainable, more resilient future, and that is why I liked to be here today with you. And as a member of the Board, my objective would be accompany the transformations of Societe Generale, but above all, to ensure that the technology becomes truly a strategic lever, a lever which can bring about differentiation and make Societe Generale more competitive. So thank you. Thank you today for providing me with your trust and trusting me, and I would be delighted to take on this responsibility with a lot of energy and a lot of enthusiasm. Thank you for your attention, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you, Ingrid. Second appointment for the Board is to Olivier Klein, a banker, banker by profession, currently a Director General of Lazard Freres Banque. He's been Head of BRED, one of the major groups of BPCE and been part of the Board of BPCE. He's also a lecturer in macroeconomy and monetary policy at HEC. Has all the competencies to work with us, notably with regard to the evolution of retail bank watches, which is one of the major challenges for our bank. He'll also be working in the Risk and Audit and Internal Committee work -- internal audit work, sorry. Olivier?

Thank you. An honor to be able to stand before you here today. A lot has been said already. From a personal point of view, I have 3 children, 2 grandchildren. And I've spent the totality of my professional career in banking, as was said, 12 years in the bank process of commerce exterior, the [indiscernible] which was a bank focusing on medium and big French groups with a very international flavor. And then I went to the retail banking in the past 25 years, during which I was the manager of banks of Caisse D'Epargne and then I was the Director General of BPCE, in charge of retail banking and insurance. And then I joined within the group, the BRED, I was head of that for the last 10 years -- a bit over 10 years. And BRED, which has retail banking, insurance, international banking, major group banking in a lot of emerging countries, notably. I look to think and develop retail banking, both in France and abroad. And I hope if you give me -- if you entrust me with this position to commit with Societe Generale on the Board to bring some, I like to think, skills, experience at any rate. And my thoughts, my views with regard to retail banking, maybe a bit of macroeconomy, too. The Chair said that I was also a lecturer and have been over 3 decades now in monetary policy and the financial macroeconomics. I would be very honored to be able to integrate to this Board, to sit on it and I would be truly committed in the bank, which has its -- can hold its own with the big international banks, European banks, which has developed a pace.

Olivier. We have three renewals, also the first one is Henri Poupart-Lafarge, who is the General Director of Alstom. It would be his second third mandate. Henri Poupart-Lafarge plays a fundamental role as a Chair of the Nomination and the Corporate Governance. Beyond the being one of the manager of one of the biggest industrial groups in France. That's a major sector per se. And it would be -- he plays a true role. The second renewal submitted to a vote by the general meeting is that William Connelly, current Chairman of the Risk Committee, and it would be William Connelly's third mandate. William has also been selected to become the Chair of the Executive Board in 1 year after the next general assembly of May 2026, and would replace me after my third mandate as an administrator, which comes to an end in May 2026. This choice, like the preceding ones, is the work of -- in-depth work from the Nominations Committee with the assistance of an external consultant. And after having examined the detail all possibilities, all candidacies, Bill, beyond the confidence of the Board has 4 major qualities, which have really orientated our choice for you to vote on. First, excellent knowledge of Societe Generale, second in-depth experience of banking, finance, insurance, in-depth knowledge of governance. He chairs Aegon, which is an insurance company, until the second semester of this year and has excellent technological knowledge because he chairs the Board of Amadeus IT Group in Spain. So we thank you for the support that you can bring to him for his renewal and as administrator. Finally, the renewal of Sebastien Wetter's chair is submitted to a vote by the general meeting as Director representing employee shareholders. Sebastien Wetter already has one mandate behind him and is a member of the Audit and Internal Control Committee. Totally integrated into the Board's work and brings his experience of banking where he has major functions in the activities of financing, notably having been an auditor also. So these are the major shareholders of the group since its privatization in 1987. The vote is in favor of the renewal, which is submitted to a vote of the employees in France and abroad, if you carry these votes, the Board will remain practically unchanged with regard to competencies, skills and skills which we consider are totally adapted to the strategic stakes of the bank. I would like to clarify an important aspect with regard to governance regarding parity, parity within the Board of Directors. In application of the current legislation at the very least each gender needs to be represented by 40% -- at least 40% of the Board. Within that calculation, salary to directors, notably [indiscernible] are not accounted for. So in the context of Societe Generale, that is to say that we take to the calculation, 12 administrators, 12 members. So as you can see here on screen, 5 women out of 12, that's 42%. So absolutely in line with the legislation. And I wish to have parity -- gender parity. But in spite of that some investors have made a different calculation. They have integrated the representative of the employees in the calculation. So instead of 12, they consider that the basis is 13, which is not in with legislation and then 5 out of 13 that would be under the 40% threshold. So according to that, we would not be in accordance with law, but that is not what law requests. And in view of that calculation, they voted against the renewal of the Chair of the Nomination Committee. So we don't agree with this interpretation ourselves because the law can only be interpreted in one way. Naturally, we know that from June 2026, the law will be applied in a different manner and that will include the representative of the employees. We know and we're going to be proposing next year in May, May 2026, an appointment of a woman in -- to step in for me. So when the law changes next year, we will be totally in line with the legislation. So I would like after this clarification, to remind you that we are attached not only to -- we want to adhere to legislation, regulations, of course, but also to the best of governance practices. And in the past, we were above even the minimum threshold requested by law. So I just wanted to flag up the fact that we do not agree with the interpretation, which is given by some investors, some shareholder investors who have a negative vote on with regard to the renewal of the Chair of Remunerations. So it is now time to move on to the remuneration policies, and I will ask Jerome Contamine, Chair of the Compensation Committee to present as he has in the past, the remuneration policies for directors. It's also an opportunity for me to thank Jerome Contamine because from next year on -- effective from tomorrow on, he becomes the Chair of the [indiscernible] of the Audit and internal Audit Committee and will be in the -- it's Annette Messemer who chair the Remuneration Policy Committee.

Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Lorenzo. Indeed, this year, again, it is down to me to present the compensation policy of the group. So for the last time, as you have just pointed out. So ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, as you know, the Board has principles of compensation applicable in the group, signs off on it notably with regard to the staff -- regulated people, regulated within the banking regulation context. It also sets, like for every company, the remuneration for the Chairs -- and decides what shares -- performance-related shares are given in line with what is provided by the general assembly. So there's an opinion of the Compensation Committee, which I've been fortunate enough to chair until now the honor. And in 2024, we met 8 times. So to be quite clear, in line with legislation, the general assembly has to prove on the one hand, the policy of remuneration 2025 of the -- that's resolutions 5 to 7. And the remunerations of social mandatories for 2024 are the 8 -- resolutions 8 to 12, and that is what we call ex-post remuneration. So if we start with the remuneration of non-executive officers, for directors. Global is EUR 1.835 million since the 1st of January 2024 total remuneration. And this amount remains unchanged. With regard to the Chair of the Board, he only gets a set remuneration, no variable and that since 2018. And that was set for the duration of the term until the general assembly of May 2026, to an amount, as you can see on screen here, unchanged EUR 925,000. Let me now come to the -- to the 2025 policy of the CEO and the principles validated last year have been carried again, so no major changes there for the Chief Executive Officer and Deputy CEO. So no change. There's a set remuneration, annual variable part. And long-term interest. So for the CET1, given the reorganization of the Director General since the 1st of November 2024 and the reduction of the number of Deputy Director Generals to a single one with added responsibilities of course, and a bigger remit. It has been decided that Pierre Palmieri's remuneration would move to EUR 1.2 million, for the Deputy CEO. For Slawomir Krupa, it remains unchanged. Now annual variable remuneration target. This one is set up in 2 parts. So for 65%, it's related to attaining the budget of financial criteria of ROTE. The cost-to-income ratio with the improvement that we've seen over time and the threshold criterion of CET1 ratio, which is used as a criteria threshold, which is coherent with the financial strategy and the policy of distribution such as has been communicated. 65% for the financial performance indicators, 20% on the base of attaining CSR objectives and 15% on the basis of criteria pertaining to regulatory compliance and transformation of the group and the specific objectives for each of the directors. In total, over 55% of the annual variable remuneration is indexed on the value of the Societe Generale share and 60% of the total is deferred over 5 years under the following performance level conditions. All this being totally compliant with banking regulation. The part, long-term incentives cannot be acquired over -- before 5 years, under the following conditions that you see here on the screen, the banking regulation, the sum of the long-term interest and the variable -- and the performance levels cannot excess 2 years of fixed remuneration. And let me remind you that the CEO and Deputy CEOs have an indemnity for noncompetition clause, which is at the level of their fixed remuneration at the level of 12 months should they leave, to an indemnity of a departure, which is paid just if it's a constrained group, if it's a first departure from the group. And this because they were before managers -- Executive Managers, this regard to the pension fund, which comes into play, pension contributions. These resolutions ex-post now to the remuneration of 2024. Different elements make it up. As you can see -- so the fixed remuneration, annual variable remuneration and long-term incentive, the amounts of the annual variable remuneration have been set out in the strict application of the policy of remuneration approved for 2024 by general assembly and taking into the rate of achievement of the objectives as set for 2024. They are -- it's a good year of performances. EUR 2,239,875 for Slawomir Krupa, and EUR 1,018,125 for Pierre Palmieri. Just as a reminder, the mandate of Philippe Aymerich came to an end on the 31st of October '24. The conditions of departure were set out according to the very strict rules and policy and recommendations of the code AFEP-MEDEF. The fixed remuneration of Philippe Aymerich was paid pro rata temporis until the 31st of October 2024. He did not receive, Philippe Aymerich, either annual variable remuneration or any long-term incentives for 2024. To conclude with the equity ratio. In compliance of the law, the report compensation for 2024 contains information on changes in the compensation of all company officers as compared to average and median compensation of employees and the group's performance. The chart presented reflect changes in employees' compensation and the ratio between this compensation and the compensation of Director General as compared to the group's profitability over 5 years. The 2024 ratio with respect to the median compensation for employees, which is 77. And with respect to the average compensation of employees at 55. The progression of the ratio in 2024 versus 2023 is due to the mechanical inclusion of Slawomir Krupa's compensation for a full year. He joined general management in 2023 and reflects the compensation of the Director General, which had not been reviewed since 2011 and was approved by the general meeting. During the same period, the group's profitability as measured by the level of ROTE progressed by 7.3 points over the period between 2020 and 2024. Our Director General has presented his ambitions for 2025 and 2026. Lastly, the Compensation Committee review the terms of compensation for all so-called regulated population, meaning risk takers within the framework of CRD V directive, the directive on European banking regulations. The amounts paid to this population in 2024 are also put up to your consulate vote for the 13th resolution. Thank you. Dear shareholders, for your attention.

Thank you, Jerome. Let us now to the written questions. This year the shareholders asked several written questions in general. We had the total number of questions 56, total number of shareholders 9, individual shareholders, including [indiscernible] 5, and 4 from associations. And those were published on the general meeting's website. I think those that were purely for informative purposes. The questions linked to topics -- were linked to topics covered since the start of the general meeting, namely our results and the financial statements, the dividend payout policy and above all, the CSR policy and the climate transition. These answers have been published and will not be read out to the meeting.

Let me now open to a discussion with the room. As I pointed out before -- questions in your personal situation as a client, there is stand at the entry to this auditorium with people who can answer your questions. If you have any problems on your bank accounts or your relationship with the different agencies, please contact the persons at the stand. I suggest we should start with the question put by the Advisory Committee of Shareholders. Microphones are at your disposal. The hostess will hand them out from my left to the right and to bottom of the auditorium, don't you worry, you will get the microphone in due time. As usual, the first question is for the Advisory Committee of Shareholders, Madam [ Caroline ] [indiscernible], you have the floor.

As I said at the general meeting in 2024, Societe Generale disposed of 7 assets and over 18 months, 13 disposals were carried out. How will these products -- the fruit of these disposals be used? And do you plan to make any other disposals in 2025?

Good evening, madam. Thank you for your question. It's quite simple. It was used to consolidate our capital positioning. You saw that in one of my slides, it was the second contributor after the growth in our revenue and the organic generation of capital. That was the second factor for increasing the capital base. To the fruit of disposals, when it allowed capital gain as in the first quarter of 2025, but also in other sectors of the bank with the disposal our risks. And the fact that loans in Morocco, when we disposed off Morocco, they're no longer on our balance sheet and no longer need to be capitalized. So both factors contribute significantly to the increase in our capital base. Would there be other disposals in 2025 or 2026 or the future? The answer is maybe. Why? Because we clearly pointed out at the Investor Day in 2023 that our strategic management policy for our business will remain unchanged. In other words, we will constantly check that our businesses, our subsidiaries and also businesses that Societe Generale is a legal entity must also show the ability to deliver sustainable performance in line with our requirements in terms of profitability with the profile and the competitive positioning. And also, they have sufficiently in synergy with other group activities that is not there to be holding our financial stake, but an integrated financial group. So that synergy is also very important. In that respect, we have already had most of the disposal plan that we had [ thought about ] -- ongoing analysis of the performance of our business portfolio could in the future, once again identify new candidates for disposals.

Thank you, please state your name. I have number 4 over there.

Individual shareholder for 20 years now. Very satisfied with the new management for 2 years now. Three points. I would like to come back to the black day on the 18th of September. What happened exactly? And what did you learn from what you should no longer do in terms of communication so that it will never happen again because it is very costly. Second point, the [ Cooper ] method, it works. For you, what is the model for success as an entrepreneur, as a bank or investor and from which you draw inspiration in your everyday work so that we can get on -- know you better. And third point, the future. You spoke in your conclusion about having the brand to shine brighter once again. But it was already the case before the Kerviel case. Concretely, what would you like to take over or no longer over from the good years in the past? And lastly, I'd like to thank you, Mr. Krupa because thanks to the sharp increase in the share price in the recent weeks, I managed to get ahead of the championship of experts in asset management. Thank you, and congratulations.

Thank you for your question. Now let me see. What caused the drop on the 18th of September. Let me disappoint you because we can always do better and always explain more. We can always try to better convince in that respect. It is clear that there is room for improvement. If you think back to that day, but let's be honest. If I stand before the shareholders and analysts on the 18th of September, with the plan saying that we will save EUR 4 billion of capital internally in different forms to increase our capital base significantly through growth and disposals and so on. And that if we add that you have a certain number of expenditures to carry out a certain number of major restructuring plans, acquisitions, mergers and so on. And at the same time, between these projects and others -- other initiatives for improved efficiency, we'll be spending EUR 1 billion. And lastly, if we were to say, that the -- this dividend payout would also be directly impacted by the potential drop in the payout rate at 40%, but indirectly to be much greater for investors by saying things clearly with respect to the concept of the underlying net income, which is the greater income on the dividend payout ratio than the drop to 40%. You shouldn't expect the share price to increase. And yet, the company, was it the right decision supported by the Board, was it something that was compulsory to have it reset. I did see the change in the way we manage the company. Yes, it was mandatory. And it would necessarily and mechanically have led to a drop that day. Could we have done better in terms of financial communication, always, and we're constantly work on that, to make -- we try to do our very best. But from a strategic standpoint, when you have 180 degrees transformation to carry out, that is something that cannot be done without difficulties. So the [ Krupa ] method, well, thank you. It is quite simple. It's all about always asking yourself with the management team and all those who take part in creating the strategy, validated by the Board, of course. It's all about first look thinking about the long-term interest of the company. and not being polluted by any other considerations aside from the sincere considerations based on the experience and collective competence to build a sustainable future for this company that we love so much and in which most of us have worked to our throughout lives, and that's almost my case at any rate. But from that point on, quite simply, let us -- you must be honest and face the facts, looking at the company honestly and taking a certain number of decisions so as to remedy in the problems that need to be solved and also to invest as I said before, in a certain number of cases to continue to have the company to grow. There's nothing particular about this method once again. This is just a strong commitment and determination to try to do your best in the best interest of the company and its stakeholders. The people from whom I draw inspiration, there are many of them. I think the Chairman would say don't say all their names, I won't make a commitment on that. But you are right. There are many inspiring people in France. You spoke about the United States, of course, the Americans but you have many entrepreneurs in France in the major large companies, small companies that have done admirable work for years and years. We have been there to support them for over century and a half, but they're still doing miracles in terms of their growth and sometimes the transformation of their company, when acquired all source of inspiration. And they have the luxury of meeting a lot of them every week because we have the honor of having them. The bank's bright positioning, something. And I will go into other details. But let me just say that the company is not just one given moment in its history, when everything seems to shine brightly. It's success begins with a strong foundation. And this is why what we have just achieved, our efforts have been focused on [ solid ] foundations. And I would just say that we have a great capacity of innovation in the past and the leadership that we have preserved and increase in market activities. Of course, these are good reasons for satisfaction of our achievements in the past. But at the same time working on the foundations that has not been done sufficiently. And still today, 20 years later on, we are still validating some of the foundations that were not consolidated at the time. So be wary of the golden era of the past, but what I can tell you is that I'm very proud and very happy, when I look at the 160 years of our history that all the generations that came before us of what they've been able to do to serve clients and the French and international clients, and European clients because it was already international in 1872 when it opened up its first operations in London. So we are very proud of our track record. Our history is a source of inspiration, but you must also think over the long term. When you think of the long term, you start with the foundations, you start where it all began. Thank you.

Number two. Just to comment. There are written questions which you applied. The only question that we don't have in the WiFi, and we have no connection. When we come to a room like this, it shouldn't happen easy access to WiFi by so that we can see the questions you answer because we can't. A question last year about the role of Madam Rochet as an independent Board member, whom I considered to have had friendly ties with the wife of Mr. Oudea. she resigned in September. I'm very happy. I would like to know she's a double agent. Did people know that she was linked to the Oudea family because she was on the Appointments Committee after all. I'm delighted that you have a new management and that the future that you're proposing for Societe Generale because we can see we have succession plans that have already been established. I have a question after the closing though. The role that Mr. both all that Mr. Kohler will play at Societe Generale could you tell us a bit more about that, please?

Alexis Kohler will be joining our company in June as Deputy Director General. There was a press release on his functions. He will first and foremost be the Chairman of Investment Banking, which is quite common place in international retail banking. It's all about managing on a day-to-day basis the commercial operations of bankers in the investment bank as well as specific activities in mergers and acquisitions and primary trading in equity. This is the job that he will be holding by my side and by the managers in investment banking. He will also be linked to a few essential departments and with the entire Executive Committee, he will help to carry out the transformation plans that are still in progress and that will continue to set the pace for our operations over the years to come. Let me add that my responsibility, first and foremost, I've always considered this to be my role is to manage from A to Z, from its constitution, development and evolution of the company's management team that is essential for a company manager because, of course, on their own, you can do -- And the quality of the management team and of all the teams in a way is the managers' responsibility. When I see this exceptional talent, my reflex naturally is to attract that talent to the company so that they can support the company's business, and this is what we did in this case. Thank you. Number 3.

Hello. I'm from the association for Wealth Management and Shareholding as individuals. Three questions. The first one, in the environment, which is very reductive, the regulatory framework in which we operate and given all the data available to you, the -- can the administrator of German nationality that you are proposing, are you envisaging to integrate intelligence, augmented or artificial, however, you wish to call it within the Board itself with vote, which may consultative or deliberative as is done elsewhere. The second question pertains to the lowering of rates that a certain number of central banks seem to be wanting to introduce in the global landscape. Could you tell us to what extent that can favor the activity itself of Societe Generale for the major accounts and for individuals? My third question, we have noted -- made a good note that you have taken the reins of Societe Generale, that you are steering Societe Generale and that you are making sure that all staff have a set path that they need to follow to convince investors to come back within the fold of Societe Generale. First stage has been attained in the trajectory that you are envisaging. Could you tell us whether you have -- you are going to slow down to really making sure that this first step is really solid in place? Or are you going to continue a pace and to bring with you the talents, which are within the Societe Generale and which would ensure that, of course, the share will continue to grow as you will do -- you will say what you do and do what you say.

Well, let me answer the first question first with regard to AI, artificial intelligence and the Board. The answer is no. The answer is there -- I could go into further detail or -- but just to be -- just summarize the first off, artificial intelligence is created on the basis of the past. And let me assure you that each Board has topics which are very new, very different, but I also believe that the wealth and the richness of an Executive Board is to have very different points of view confronted, which may be complementary, and we can take a general summary of that. So having around the table, sitting at the board table with us, machines which are learning without adding a complementary vision, a different point of view, different perspective. It would not maybe identify the issues and would not see indeed the source of problems would not identify where they're coming from. When that is the role of a Board really and to bring -- we need to bring around the table complementary points of view, different points of view. So for the moment, no, you talked about Hong Kong. I didn't know that example. But for the moment, for the time being, we consider that human intelligence is superior in this context of Boards.

Thank you very much. Thank you for your questions. Knowing of rates. The first answer, the most simple one, if you will, is that it's complicated, but that said, I'll try and answer you. The first point is that overall, of course, lower rates, if I simplify matters, favor economic activity and, therefore, investment, productive investment and as a whole, but there are a whole array of configurations, which would go against what I'm saying, but generally speaking, that supports and underlies economic development. Us as bankers financing the economy. We are, of course, correlated in a positive manner to the economic growth. So from that point of view, it is something which is positive. In our activity of retail banking, where we have this critical function for the economies of inflows, collecting savings, which are then reemployed for financing the economy. Of course, at that level there's the idea that the margin of interest, which is a major focus for investors and has been for years now. Well, the cost -- the margin between the cost of what is done with the deposits and loans. Generally speaking, when rates decrease, generally, that weakens structurally over the long term, the net margin of interest carried out in retail banking. So from that point of view, it is something which in the mid- to long term is a factor which can be negative from an activity point of view. But once again, my first comment [indiscernible] to be valid compensated by the activity itself all of that. So if you will, the yield of a certain number of parameters, the management of assets and -- but the general context in volume increases, it's very difficult to say at any given stage whether yes or no, the 2 forces which are coming together is positive and negative. At the end, like every entrepreneur, I have a preference for economic growth and economic development as a source of activity being supported. But as you're asking the question specifically with regard to wealth management, at that stage, not having directly the issue of the asset management is favorable because it's favorable investment, economic activity generally. And there, again, from a theoretical point of view, favorable to the companies having higher high share pricing. So that is for rates. Thank you for your comments with regard to the first stage attained, you have understood. You share that idea that we've reached a first step of a staircase, which has a number of steps. Are we going to continue? We are going to continue altogether a pace as you mentioned to transform or are we going to slow matters down a bit, that's the question. Well, let me answer. We're not going to slow down, no. That said, we're not going to modify in any manner whatsoever our objectives, our targets, transformation objectives, including cultural ones, the reinforcement of meaning and the performance-related culture within the company. All of those things will require work, which is to be done over the long term. And there is no reason -- absolutely no reason to slow down at this stage on -- but as you said, the first step of long staircase. Of course, it may be seen as the easiest. So there are some things that we're looking at to do from a transformational point of view, which are complex, more -- intrinsically more complex. If we're looking at technology, for instance, will take more time. And the first work carried out, and you'll have heard this a number of times, I believe everything we do has the objective of being sustainable. We really have this feeling. We want to rebuild it anyway, reinforce the foundations of the group. So from that point of view, everything we do is with the objective of being sustainable, of lasting. So the idea of accelerating further or slowing down for me only be seen within that perspective of looking to retain sustainability. So it's not so much a question of slowing down or accelerating, but it's to continue to do in a determinant manner of what we've done, what we have been doing, what we are doing and to progress towards our objectives of 2026 and beyond and to attain the competitivity of our bank against all our European competitors. So there's still a lot of work that needs to be done. So no slowing down, but what we do needs to be done in a sustainable, responsible manner to be durable precisely.

Back to the left, number 7 there, at the bottom.

Mr. Chair, Mr. [indiscernible], ladies and gentlemen, I'm [indiscernible] and my question is name of income finance assumption and the coalition beyond fossil fuels which has over 70 organizations of civil society, engaged for the exiting of fossil fuels on its site. Societe Generale says that it's engaged and responsible and wants to contribute to a proactive and responsible transformation by accompanying the real economy towards carbon neutrality, which is excellent because that is your engagement as Net Zero Banking Alliance foundation to attain this carbon neutrality for 2050. The trajectory for this is traced by the International Energy Agency in its net-zero emissions for - it says that there needs to be a rapid transformation of our energy system and the rollout of renewable energy as a replacement of fossil energies. Logically, any support that you may provide to the rollout of renewable energy will, of course, be welcome, but we know it can only decarbonate our economies, if it's completed by the end to supporting new gas stations and coal plants. That is the energy transformation of a bank mobilized and responsible. We alerted you in the name of the coalition on the case of EPH, a subsidiary of EP Group, which belongs to the billionaire, Daniel Kretínsky, which was supported by Societe Generale and its Czech affiliate for over EUR 100 million between '23 and '24. They are looking to have new plants in Czech Republic, France, Italy. And this goes against your own commitments and the commitments of France. In addition EPH -- in addition to these gas plants remains highly problematic. [ LERG ] affiliate which has been taken to court this year for violation of obligation of environmental transformation. And for that, I echo the risk identified by the statutory auditor regarding legal risks. EPH today is not looking at energy transition at all. Over 75% is in fossil energies, which shows that they want to remain anchored in fossil energies and are not looking to transition to continue to support them is incompatible with your ambitions and commitments. My question, therefore, is a dual one. And looking at -- I would like you to say, do what you say and say what you do. So tell us what you're doing. First off, have you participated in the issuance of the $527 million in February '25 raise of funds? And do what you say, are you -- will you commit to put an end to all your support to EPH as long as they are not committed with regard to the stopping of fossil plants in line with your own commitments? That's it.

Thank you for your questions. Thank you for your points. First off, with regards to EPH, our practice is to not provide information on specific companies or specific transactions for reasons which are legal or contractual reasons. So that's with regard to the more general question with regard to involvement at once in the industry of renewable energy, but also in the financing of fossil of fuels. So let me start with renewables. I would like to say, and I said this last year, let me reemphasize this. We are fifth financiers globally of renewable energies #5. And my reference is the infrastructure journal which is a true reference in the industry. And as you know, we're now the fifth global bank from a size point of view. So that means that our involvement and our commitment for financing renewable energies is extremely substantial. With regard to fossil energies that we have taken a lot of -- we have committed very strongly. And the number of commitments have been made. Let me remind you that for everything, which is oil upstream, exploration and production, E&P of oil and gas, we have taken a commitment to decrease our exposure by 80% between 2019 and 2030. And that is one of the engagements. One of the strongest ambitions within our sector with regard. And you mentioned the coal plants, gas plants with regard to coal. We have a policy. We have stopped in effect of financing, which is dedicated to coal, thermal coal right back in 2017, and we were the first or amongst the very first at any rate. Our coal activity, and this is -- we are -- we have no commitments from 2030 on into the OECD countries and other countries from 2040. So in other words, the engagements that we're still carrying, which is still in our P&L are extremely low with regard to gas plants now. We have not seen in what the EIA is asking that gas plants were not part of the trajectory. So we have no policy of exclusion with regard to gas plants because to our mind, they are -- they play, they have a role to play. They play an important role to manage the intermittent period for renewable energies. But what we have implemented for all the production of electricity sector to decrease. We look at the intensity of emissions of CO2 in grams per kilowatt. And so we monitor this. We monitor these assets indicators very closely on a regular basis, and they've already considerably down since 2019 by a rebalancing in our energy mix between renewable, which is increasing strongly. Coal which is decreasing strongly and the gas power plants, which we haven't excluded, but which represent at any rate a very, very low amount in our global exposure. So given all of that, we consider that our policy is an ambitious one and aligned and we'll respect the commitments taken notably in the context of NZBA, Net-Zero Banking Alliance. 8, please.

Hello, Mr. Chair [indiscernible] . I'm representing here the sector and association representing the employees and former shareholder employees and I'm also part of the monitoring of the pulp fund with other members of staff here. I'm here to ask you two questions, two questions, which reflect the questions that are put to us by members of staff. First one on with regard to the growth of income because after many restructuring and you say that they're going to continue these restructurations, the sale of assets. It's essential for us to identify the new sources of income of reserves, but also for the commitment of staff. So what are the projects of growth, which are the biggest one and the most transformative that you're envisaging for the next 2 years? If you already have something to say. The second is valorization of human capital. Of course, the improvement of -- efficiency, of operational efficiency could also bring about the departure of key talents. And we want to watch this clear -- carefully that we want to preserve know-how technique and competencies. What initiatives is management going to take to preserve and transmit strategic competencies within the group, IT, managerial competencies, skills and know-how.

Thank you. With regard to new sources of revenue and growth of said revenue, I think that's a very important question that I'll come back to that. I talked about it briefly during my opening speech, restructuring, the transformation that we are carrying out notably over the past 24 months is substantial. Of course, but it is a company in parallel at the same time, by this period of investment, which has been the most substantial in our history, so maybe you would find that difficult to apprehend to believe. Let me come back to what I was saying earlier on, but it's a reality. We are currently integrating the biggest acquisition that the group has ever done. An acquisition of the #1, by the #2 in its sector. I'm talking, of course, of [ A1 senior ]. And this is a company group which is a complex one. From a financial point of view, about half of the income comes from the margin service-related margins, services carried out by the management, the operating management from A to Z, end-to-end of over 3 million vehicles in over 40 countries throughout the world. So it's a merger which -- because it's a company which is present in 40 countries, which is a merger, which needs to be done country by country by country. Just allow me to ask you to take 1 second to think about what I have just expressed in order to measure, to truly measure the amplitude of this task that we are carrying out. In the same time, we have carried out which I was reminding this is earlier on from essentially the end of 2023 and majorly in 2024, the biggest -- one of the biggest banking mergers in France. At the same time, we invested hundreds of millions in radical transformation of KB, our -- given that Czech Republic totally revamping its core banking system and specialists. And I thank you once again, those who have been investing in us for over 20 years now. There are many of you. You know that changing our core banking system is a dream pursued by many and few have made it come true. This is now in progress at KB. It is difficult like all major projects, but it is completed at the same time. We are investing hundreds of millions, an important decision that we took at the same time as others in September 2023 in helping Boursorama to grow. Thanks to this decision, which was not what the financial markets would have preferred over the short term. We decided the time is to say no. This is an absolutely unique growth opportunity and we will not sacrifice it short-term imperatives. And at the time, we decided to invest hundreds of millions in acquiring new clients per year than we have today. So my first answer is we can't do more because we're already doing the maximum, and it is fundamental for that to be understood. We have spoken about it time and time again. And once again, I believe that the management teams and the Board sense of the term. This is precisely what we are the most proud of. We'll be able to say today after a lot of work, lot of humility, lot of concentration to be able to do both at the same time. The proof can be seen in the fact that setting aside disposals in the first quarter. The revenue is up by 10%. So if you want to have a macroeconomic proof of what I'm saying, you have it there. We will continue to do so and to finish answering your question organically because today, we consider that in all these businesses that we have restructured and we continue to invest in investment banking as well, we have significant growth opportunities. Okay, leveraging human capital. Human capital in all companies, especially in services and certainly in banking is certainly a key success factor over the long term. This is something that lies at the heart of our concerns. We gave an example with the specific recruitment in training because we believe, in general, that we have progress to make up at the company in that respect. And we have development plans that are significant in that area, precisely in order to leverage our existing skills and its transmission in the company over years. One point that was a strength [indiscernible] still is, but we must work on this. I will conclude by saying in terms of developing human capital and keeping people. For me, the company's performance and its ability to satisfy its clients, its ability to be incredible amongst its clients, be they private individuals or large corporates or financial institutions around the world. That is an essential part of this culture and to increase it's skills and it's capacity to deliver sustainable performance. So everything we're doing to improve our performance and to improve our culture performance in the company is absolutely vital to develop its human capital. Number 9.

I'm Erica. And will put my question. We spoke about corporate social responsibility and sustainable finance. But we've seen that more and more European banks have played a major role in setting up the first omnibus package by the EU. Their action condemns [ devalues ] human rights, the rights of employees and the protection of the environment and is dangerous. Societal Europe considers that banks have put pressure to eliminate the clause that could have helped to fully include financial institutions in the CBDDQ of diligence forcing banks to use the Omnibus current trend to deregulation is you set pretax to avoid deregulation. The report published in February 2025 was promoted and drafted by the European Banking Federation. I have two questions. One was the involvement of Societe Generale in discussion to the French Banking Authority and European policymakers on the Omnibus proposal. And to what extent the final Omnibus proposal is in line with the proposal made by Societe Generale?

I will begin and if you have anything to add, please go ahead. First of all, I'm not here to report back to you on Societe Generale's position in strategic thinking. On the economic environment, economic environment in which we operate in the European Union. That's my first point. Just a matter of procedure that way. Now, we take part in all the institutions in the market, like any other company and the position of the French Banking Federation and European Banking Federation, they are public. You yourself are referring to documents that were published -- made public just like any other nongovernmental organization, which has the same right of the expression of this vision of the world. No one has the monopoly in democracy and luckily Europe is still a democracy. No one has a monopoly of having transparent and legitimate position on changes in the legal regulatory framework or the philosophical or economic framework of the place where they [indiscernible]. Societe Generale doesn't make proposals on itself. It takes advice from those different bodies in the studies, but not specifically involved in these different processes, and that's it. Might add a comment, it may seem a bit off but on the Omnibus proposal was described as a minimus by the European sector. I will stop there in terms of my comments on that proposal. Pierre, would you like to add anything to that?

No, I think we are convinced without going into the details. But there's no incompatibility between strong ambitions. In terms of pricing against climate change, taken into account major transition and European competitiveness and the measure like going in that direction, which we received welcome quite favorably. Very well then, we could speak about that at great length. Simplification doesn't necessarily mean deregulation, by the way. I really think that, that's important. Number one.

I'm a private shareholder and a former employee at Societe Generale. 42 years at Societe Generale. Employees and shareholders are very angry to see the arrival of Mr. Alexis Kohler at Societe Generale, knowing that he is the right hand of Mr. Macron. You said earlier, that you wanted to attract talent. You said that Mr. Macron is very talented. We can see the state of France. So we are very much concerned as to the arrival of Mr. Alexi s Kohler at Societe Generale. Not good for our image.

I can see that, that wasn't the question, so there will be no answer.

I'd like to congratulate you on supporting gas-fired plants. Intermittence is a major problem. And it's good to have the means to respond rapidly to energy intermittence. I don't know if you could take the example of Italy and Spain, Portugal and Spain. My question, I was a bit disappointed by the dividend or the dividend payout, a payout of EUR 2.19, which gives us a yield of 4%, which is not a lot, but decent. But the dividend is just half of that. As a pensioner, I need the dividend for my retirement. And now you're eliminating half of my dividend to buy shares. The shares aren't you, why not pay out the dividend and allow your shareholders to do what they want to with their dividend. It's not you to buy back shares. That's not up to you.

Thank you. Good evening. We already covered this topic last year, but it's a very important topic. So thank you for your question. I will try to answer you. And that's once again naturally, the Board takes decisions on allocating capital. With respect to distribution, distribution of any excess capital, we made a simple choice either to reinvest in organic growth for the company or reinvest in inorganic growth or a dividend payout. We paid out a small amount for distribution for the annual results, which is stable. It can be readjusted here and there. The reason why plans to have a balanced share between dividend is that the discount is still significant, even though it was reduced in recent months. It's all about [ dilution ] of net profits per share and the financial efficiency of the share buyback, which is far greater than that of dividend. So what's happening is that here, we have a certain number of different types of shareholders represented. You represent a diverse community with different visions and different views and a certain number of institutional investors, either to speak right now, they would ask me exactly the opposite. Why pay out a dividend when you have a discount at the time when the decision was taken, if I remember correctly it was about 40%. So they would say the opposite that distribution payout policy proposed and decided by the Board, seems to propose something that is well balanced between the outlooks offered by the different investors in Societe Generale. It's a balance. The company's interest in terms of it's valuation with respect to dilutions to net profit per share, the most rational option was a share back as long as you have a significant discount. The good news the share discount is narrowing and we're coming closer to a situation where it will no longer be financially relevant when the company reaches our valuation, which is 1x the value of its own equity. Thank you. Number 5.

Mr. President, Mr. Krupa, Director General, I'd like to say that I'm satisfied to see that you are clear man and the company is doing well. But I have a complaint. I would like to inform you that I'm a client at Boursorama since they won. I was promised something. I have a complaint, in recent years, there's been a dysfunctioning at Boursorama in terms of how information is processed and how they answer my request. I asked for a redress. And apparently, Mr. [indiscernible] has not entered my request. I would like to have my case handled by your team. It -- with the transaction that I'm not accustomed to, but I may have to call an attorneys. So I would like you to deal with this case. Because operating fees are too high. I think we have a stand for Boursorama of as well. There's a stand outside this room for Boursorama for you to ask your question.

Well, there is no answer to give with the format of this general meeting. But you have representatives from BoursoBank with whom you may speak. There are many complaints that you can file. I do understand that you are still unsatisfied and you're always ready to continue have a dialogue with you but through the proper channels, but which is not here at the general meeting. So that people understand to listen to you. Number 7.

Mr. President, I'm an individual shareholder. Congratulations for the financial performance of our company. Following this financial performance, will Societe Generale make its contribution to modernizing our French overseas department in Mayotte some years some ago. Societe Generale hastily left Russia and sold off Rosbank at a low cost. Would you also like to make a contribution to rebuilding Mayotte? Second, as a banker, how do you feel about the level of digital view at the end of the year? Would you depend digital currencies in the future to keep a freedom of choice in terms of means of payment?

Thank you very much for your questions. I will take the second question before giving the floor to Pierre to answer the first question. About the digital euro, I don't believe in your optimism or in your pessimism I don't know. But I don't believe that the Central Bank's digital view will be here at the end of the year. It will certainly takes many, many years of techie cost development of all sorts to be able to deliver on this ECB project which is still being discussed even at the political level and still being discussed by the European Council. But your question goes well beyond specific project. We begin with always by the size of our clients. Our clients have their own ways of behaving that their needs and the only judges of what is good for them within the legal framework in which we operate for as long as the conventional currency, is an important part of their preferences in terms of their behavior. We will be there to meet those needs. The underlying question [indiscernible] with respect to digital Euro is what are we trying to do? What is the problem we're trying to solve to this solution. And here it's complicated. International Banking bodies, someone said that the digital Euro is a problem. I'm sorry, I can't do it correctly. It's a solution that is still looking for its problem. If the -- this is a very important matter. Sovereignty of European payments ability for Europe to have instant means of payments in terms of credit cards and so on at the regional level. I think that is a crucial matter that you must think of. But the solution is not necessarily by creating a digital wallet with the Central Bank for small amounts. I don't see how that can solve the problem of sovereignty of means of payments. There are essential strategic issues that are being discussed today by the authorities and by us too, as our market operators and all European banks. The discussion is still ongoing. And to answer your question directly, we will always make sure that we cater to our customers' needs without positioning ourselves as being able to judge their behavior.

So with regard to Mayotte, allow me to start by saying that we have we thoughts for all the inhabitants of Mayotte are our customers, our employees, who have known very difficult moments. And we have 8 agencies in Mayotte, 67 employees that are set up, and that setup depends on effect on one of our affiliates, which is called BFCOI. And we have a presence in Mayotte locally. So how can we support -- help customers, employees and all the bodies who have suffered because of the solution we are certainly all too aware of. First is SG Fund Aid for customers associations and employees. The second thing we're participating in mobilization taking place by the French authorities who launched that. So we are part of that. And fundamentally, but by doing our job as bankers through our system, well, we can -- our banking system network, we can take into account all risks and so on. But we are present, and we are supporting our customers through these difficult times by working as bankers, which is our job. Number 2 please.

Congratulations. Because very few analysts that we are believed that you would have such figures, and you've really woken up Sleeping Beauty. We have to say that. But BoursoBank just when you talk about BoursoBank, your competitors, you get annoyed with great success. So we see the concentration is happening in Spain, Italy or [ Buy Credito ] and to -- and starting to look at Germany. And [ Buy Credito ] it's not an unknown name. So I would like to know [ UniCredit ] . [ UniCredit ] what work has been done? Do you not think that, that will draw attention of your competitors? And how do you foresee the rollout of BoursoBank on the European market through acquisitions, partnerships? That's because BoursoBank is really a success, which make your competitors, very jealous.

Thank you. I believe, and it's a source of satisfaction of intense satisfaction indeed that Boursorama and BoursoBank be really -- they really are making their mark in retail banking in France. So I'll start with that side. It's international development is a topic, which we are monitoring, looking at constantly by the Board, by a Director General. But at this topic. It's a legitimate question because as you just reminded us because of the success under the quality of the success furthermore, the number of customer is one thing, but the depth of the development of customer relations within BoursoBank, the quality from an assets point of view, products management capacity that BoursoBank has to develop this relationship over time for each generation of new customers acquired is absolutely remarkable. And that is the reason for which the question of its international development is, of course, a legitimate question. That said, what is very important to bear in mind and to a certain extent, the first comment with -- when you talked about the mergers that you mentioned, the integration, we need to acknowledge that the integration of the European banking system has practically not started as of today, apart from what can be done here and there, generally in an organic manner, not always, but generally organically in different countries, merging transporter, merging operations have been quasi in existence in Europe. So coming back to this idea, why? Because these jurisdictions are very different from one country to the next. In retail banking, there's also totally different behaviors from one country to the next. So the reason for which we are taking our time, like in all the strategic decisions that we take, we're really looking at it, thinking about it. We want to process in a sustainable manner, this question of difference in behavior. And we need to recognize humbly that radical success in one country does in no way guarantee success in another country. And there are major players of retail banking in Europe, such as ING Direct or Fineco, for instance, one essentially practically in Germany and the other in Italy have in reality, when they developed elsewhere, they just had very limited success. And so we are looking to think about what the stakes are, see how we can go about the matter in a serene manner, taking time once again to take the right decisions. But more generally speaking, with regard to consolidation, we don't have a partnership with UniCredit any more so than with other banks. We collaborate on a daily basis on financial markets. So we have counterparts one or the others. We can work with shared customers in collaboration. We have no strategic partnership specific with UniCredit. And more generally speaking, the question of mergers and acquisitions in Europe comes up against us. I said last year, the transporter operations are extraordinarily difficult. The merger is difficult without any barrier anyway between countries or regulatory barriers or whatever they may be. But when those barriers exist, whether that be with regard to mobilization, synergies from a capital point of view, mobilization of transport and liquidities and transformation of assets. And when you have such barriers, it's becomes practically impossible to solve and in all the operations, which are ongoing now, which are essentially domestic operations because even the operation in Germany is a domestic one really because UniCredit has big activities in Germany. What I do note today is that those operations are not really coming to fruition to conclude. Maybe final question #5, again.

Laurent [indiscernible]. For months, years now a lot of voices have been speaking up pointing at the Mozambique Energy Total project that you're financing. You know that Total want to launch this project this summer. You know that you played a key role in this relaunch as financiers as you had -- you gave -- you granted to finance the project in 2020, and you are still financial advisers. Mozambique LNG has become a project over the past years and the past month ever more toxic with notably the publication of dunning surveys on what Total are doing in Mozambique. And Politico and Lemon, those media have unveiled actions which have been carried out on the site of TotalEnergies Mozambique and by staff paid by Total looking to protect the project. So I'll be clear what we're talking about. We're talking about dozens of civilians who have been sequestered in containers for 3 months and who have been punished, tortured, assassinated, murdered. There's also a legal investigation against Total linked with these activities in Mozambique. So we're talking about a legal inquest in this project that you are financing. Of course, these are very serious allegations of crime. I cannot say that Societe Generale can't hide the contract signed in 2020. But my questions are the following: Societe Generale -- is Societe Generale favorable that an international investigation, an independent one, truly independent be taken under the UN Aegis given the atrocities revealed by policies, does Societe Generale believe that the conditions are united today for the relaunch of this project? Or does Societe Generale believe that this relaunch is not envisageable in the current conditions? And finally, as financial adviser for Total Mozambique, what role will your bank play or is playing or will play in the decision-making processes with regard to Total LNG, Mozambique?

Mozambique Well, I'll repeat what I said earlier on with regard to BH. That is to say that our practice, our conduct is to not make any comments and to not provide any information on specific customers or specific projects. That said, what I can say is that with regard to this project, like every project that we're involved in, whether it be as advisers or financiers, we bring the biggest, we are very vigilant. We monitor closely in order that these projects be compliant with our policies, our environmental policies, our social policies, including human rights. So we take decisions each time, ensuring after due diligence, analysis, specific analysis carried out by our teams who follow the projects that we are adhering to our policies, and that we also adhere to the Principles of the Equator that we've signed and where we can -- in which we commit that for our major projects to respect all the environmental, social, human rights aspects of each project.

Very good. We are maybe moving towards here on the left, maybe #7. Final question, I believe.

Hello, Mr. Chair. Hello, everybody. I'm [indiscernible]. I'm an individual shareholder of Societe Generale. I'm a founder of a specialized start-up in artificial intelligence. So 3 questions with regard to AI strategy within the group. First one, what concrete usage of artificial -- generative artificial intelligence are you envisaging to transform the operations or customer services between now and 2026? Second, are you envisaging opening self Gen AI with experimentations with the technological start-ups in that domain of artificial intelligence? My third question, what of the gains of productivity expected can be directly linked to the integration of artificial intelligence? And how can you measure the impact thereof?

Thank you for your questions. First comment that I would like to make is that it is a topic which is, of course, at once that there's a lot published constantly all the time in the media, all types of articles. The industrial reality is, of course, there's less going on, less buzzing and there's a lot of companies, notably in our industry like us are investing more and more resources in looking at the topics in an ever more strategic manner. That is to say, moving from a method where, roughly speaking, there is, what, several hundred experiments carried out in the group, just scattered all over the place to an approach which is more strategic, more thought out where we really try to concentrate our resources because, of course, it represents a cost even simply to analyze solutions, to check the viability carries a big cost with it. So to concentrate that effort on the major topics and subjects. In our case, we've created self GenAI to precisely how a vehicle brings together the know-how, the expertise internally, externally that we've recruited to catalyze to bring together our efforts in a strategic manner and for the whole of the group rather than once again being scattered having projects here there and everywhere. So within this effort, we've looked at interaction with customers, onboarding of customers, which is an operational topic, which is at once cumbersome and expensive for banks, optimization of back-office operations, of course, the development, IT development in the sense of coding, regulations and also the staff. So those are the 6 priorities that we've developed -- that we've identified to looking to focus our resources and efforts on the projects, which will go as fast as possible and which will have a big impact rapidly. So not spreading our efforts, in other words. Of course, yes, it's a logic for this entity. We're going to facilitate interface with we have in this domain like elsewhere, we have even more so here. We really need to work with external, as you said, with work external talents, start-ups. We need also to work with more established companies to ensure that we can really build upon and catalyze, bringing together all the available resources to increase our own capacity of actions in this domain of investments. In this domain, what part of productivity? Well, in the productivity gains part and the ones announced back in 2023 in the Investor Day, which make up most objectives of 2026, the part of artificial intelligence is not significant in a certain manner. It's not directly quantified even if effects of automation may here or there integrate AI solutions. But that said, in our current way of looking at the future and how we're considering matters, it could be in turn, something which can contribute much more in the spirit of what I was describing earlier on.

Very last question then maybe number 2, last one. No further ones. So and then we're moving on to the voting.

Two questions. first one with regard to Societe Generale in Europe with regard to players who are a bit more substantial, such as BNP Paribas, for instance. What are the strategic objectives that you would implement to improve your level of competitivity. Societe Generale, every year, we talk -- we hear talk of possible mergers with UniCredit, BNP Paribas. What information can you provide us with that?

Well, second question, first, rumors of merger, they are never ceasing. As I said earlier on, for the moment, no merger -- no significant merger of the -- has happened over the past 20, 25 years. And all those ongoing have clearly not yet -- the discussions have not yet come to anything. And then your other question, if we're talking about our competitivity, well, that's how I'll take it at any rate. Competitivity, at the end of the day, is measured in 2 manners. Like for any other company, whether you're local grocers or an industrial group or a banker, we're talking about gross and net margin, gross margin. It's a capacity that enables the company to create value. So the selling of products and services in bankers that's measured by capital on income employed ratio. So -- and the net one, of course, is the ROTE. Once we have, if you will, carried out all the production processes and got the gross margin through the costing structure of the company, so in banking, it's a capacity to manage induced risks. That's where you get net. So with regard to -- we've always been in gross profitability amongst the most profitable in the world, and that's thanks to our capacity of innovation, the capacity of products and services that we have been developed for decades now. And from that point of view, we have, as a group, always been amongst the very best banks capable of generating profitability, gross profitability at very high levels. Our problem, and we've talked about that, if you will, throughout the course of this afternoon and certainly over the past 2 years, it's a costing structure. And at what price, if you would, "what does it cost us to produce this high gross margin." And whatever ratio we look at, we have to say whatever it be operating ratio or typical very specific spend. We have progress here there, but still much progress that we need to have to decrease our costs, our fixed costs while still generating gross margins to increase sustainably our ROE. So we have all the ingredients to be amongst the leaders. A lot of work to find ourselves in that position. But that is our ambition. And it appears to me that this is an interesting conclusion to our debates of this afternoon. Mr. Chair?

Very well then I think we have covered all the topics and strategic issues, we can move on to vote on the resolutions. I will give you the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Lorenzo. I won't be reading out all the resolutions that can be found in the notice of meeting. We have tablets. Don't forget to validate your vote each time, and the results will come up on the screen. The final quorum is 64.34%, 480,712,583 shares for 26,051 shareholders. Moving on to the first resolution. you may now vote. [Voting]

There you go. Time is up. The resolution is adopted. 99.49%. The second resolution of overall financial statements for FY 2024 year. Voting is open. [Voting]

Don't forget to validate. No more voting. The resolution is carried at 99.47%. The third resolution on the results for 2024, a dividend of EUR 1.09, ex dividend date 26th of May, payment as on 29th of May. You may now vote. [Voting]

Don't forget to validate. Voting is closed. The resolution is carried by 98.71%. Fourth resolution on approval of the Statutory Auditors' report and regulated agreements presented earlier. You may now vote. [Voting]

Don't forget to validate. No more voting. Resolution is carried by 99.85%. Fifth resolution, remuneration policy for the Chairman of the Board Of Directors as presented earlier. Vote is open. [Voting]

Don't forget to validate. Voting is closed. The resolution is adopted by 93.76%. Sixth resolution, remuneration policy for the Chief Executive Officer and Deputy Chief Executive Officer it's an ex-ante policy that was presented earlier. You may now vote. [Voting]

Voting is closed. Resolution adapted by 86.69%. Seventh resolution, remuneration policy for directors. It remains unchanged. You may now vote. [Voting]

Don't forget to validate. Voting is closed. Resolution carried by 94.43%. Eighth resolution, approval of information relating to the compensation of each of the corporate officer as presented earlier by Jerome Contamine. [Voting]

Voting is closed. The resolution is adopted by 95.46%. Ninth resolution, approval of compensation paid or allocated in 2024 or awarded for 2024 to Mr. Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, Chairman of the Board of the Directors. You may now vote. [Voting]

Please validate. Time is up. The resolution is carried by 93.17%. Tenth resolution, approval of compensation paid in 2024 or awarded for 2024 to Mr. Slawomir Krupa, Chief Excecutive Officer, presented by Jerome Contamine. You may now vote. [Voting]

Don't forget to validate. Voting is now closed. The resolution is carried by 93-plus percent. Eleventh resolution, approval of compensation paid in 2024 award or awarded for 2024 to Mr. Philippe Aymerich, upto 31st of December 2024. You may now vote. [Voting]

Don't forget to validate. Voting is now closed. The resolution is adopted by 86.02%. And now moving to the twelfth resolution, approval of compensation paid in 2024, awarded for 2024 to Mr. Pierre Palmieri, Deputy Chief executive officer. You may now vote.

Don't forget to validate. Voting is now closed. The resolution is carried by 93.97%. Thirteenth resolution, which is advisory opinion on compensation paid to regulated persons. You may now vote. [Voting]

Don't forget to validate. Voting is closed. Resolution adopted by 97.86%. Fourteenth resolution on the role of Mr. William Connelly as Director for a term of office of 4 years. You may now vote. [Voting]

Please validate. Voting is closed. Resolution is adapted by 95.25%. Fifteenth resolution, renewal of Mr. Henri Poupart-Lafarge as Director for a term of 4 years. You may now vote. [Voting]

Please validate. Voting is closed. Resolution is carried by 89.22%. Sixteenth resolution, appointment of Mr. Olivier Klein as Director for a term of 4 years. You may now vote. [Voting]

Please validate. Voting is closed. Mr. Klein is appointed by 98.69%. Seventeenth resolution, appointment of Madam Ingrid-Helen Arnold as Director for 4 years. You may now vote. [Voting]

Please validate. Voting is now over. Madam Arnold is appointed by 99.17% of votes. Eighteenth resolution, renewal of Mr. Sébastien Wetter as Director representing employee shareholders. You may now vote. [Voting]

Please validate. Voting is over. Resolution carried by 96.86%. Nineteenth resolution, authorization -- annual authorization to buy back shares for a period of 18 months within a limit of 10% of capital. You may now vote. [Voting]

Please validate. Voting is closed. Resolution carried by 97.53%. Twentieth resolution, authorization for capital increase transaction reserve for employees within the limit of 1.5% of capital with a discount of 20%. You may now vote. [Voting]

Please validate. Time is up. Resolution is carried by 98.67%. Twenty-first resolution, amendment for probations in the bylaws, mainly drafting. the first is linked to the social environmental challenges and the possibility for the board to take decisions by a written consultation. And thirdly to make general meetings possible via telecommunication. And lastly, decisions on indirect broadcasting of the general meetings. You may now vote. [Voting]

Please validate. Time is up. Resolution is carried by 98.78%. And the last resolution on powers. You may now vote. [Voting]

Don't forget to validate. And time is up. The resolution is carried by 99.81%.

Well, thank you very much. Thank you for your votes, showing your trust in us. We'll see you next year on the 27th of May here -- on the 27th of May, 2026. Don't forget to return your tablets on your way out. We can also recover a small gift. Have a wonderful evening.