Thursday, October 6 was the date for the annual event of "Féminin by Société Générale", Societe Generale’s association of women executives, dedicated this year to diversity in our client base. Created in 2006 by a handful of women intent on promoting diversity within their company's management, this association now mobilises more than 580 employees across France.

We are sensitive to the increasing proportion of women in our client base, be it Retail Banking or Corporate & Investment Banking, and we wanted to discuss their expectations of banking relationships and the solutions we could provide.

So we met with about thirty women from large corporations, clients of Corporate & Investment Banking - about twenty from the banking network in addition to their internal contact people, i.e. senior bankers and client managers from different cities in France. In all, nearly 80 people were involved in the project!

This showed us that there were many similarities between the expectations of Retail Banking clients and Investment Banking clients. They are all attached to their advisors and expect clear, well-thought-out answers, because they have no time to waste. Our Investment Banking clients revealed to us that they were convinced that a good balance of women and men and, more broadly, diversity can create richer analysis and production of advice.

They unanimously refuse to take advantage of offers specifically targeted to women. Isn't a client a client before she's a woman?

The initial recommendations are already taking shape: summarise and clarify our advice, promote practical solutions that save time, and support our banking network clients in the key moments of their lives. Within Corporate and Investment Banking, our clients are asking us to improve the gender balance within our sales teams. As we wished, these recommendations will benefit all our clients – women and men.

This original, innovative approach is our way of helping improve the satisfaction of both our male and female client bases. Just like gender diversity, which is an integral part of our Human Resources initiatives, this is a key aspect of the Ambition SG 2015 programme.

Read the conclusions of the report here (in French).