Societe Generale SA

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Societe Generale second quarter 2026 results conference call. I will now hand over to Mr. Slawomir Krupa, Chief Executive Officer. Sir, please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Leo and I are delighted to present to you another strong set of results. They demonstrate the strength of our execution as we enter into the final stage of our current strategic roadmap. Our high-quality financial performance during the first half of 2026 puts us ahead of our 2026 annual targets and results in a record net income for the Group of 3.5 billion euros. In light of this performance, we are pleased to announce the launch of a 1.5 billion euro extraordinary share buyback as well as an interim dividend for the first half of 2026 of 0.75 euro per share, 75 euro cents, up plus 23% versus last year. These strong results, delivered in a highly uncertain and volatile environment, demonstrate the success of our transformation over the past three years. Today we are much more efficient, focused, and profitable with a well-diversified business mix. The numbers illustrate this. Our revenues are up by plus 2.4% versus 8.25% on a reported basis. This is in line with our 2026 annual guidance of revenue growth of more than plus 2%. Our actions on costs are paying off, continue to pay off, driving greater efficiency with operating expenses down minus 5% versus H1-25. It far exceeds our original 2026 target of around a 3% reduction and delivers substantial value creation with a 7.3 percentage point of positive JAWS. This leads logically to a cost-to-income ratio of 59.7%, which is in line with our year-end target of a cost-to-income ratio below 60. With a cost-to-risk of 26 basis points, we remain at the low end of our guidance range, demonstrating both the prudent risk management and the strong quality of our credit portfolio. All of this translates into a group ROTI of 12%, H1-26, well above our full-year target of more than 10%. But this merely represents a base camp for us in what is an ongoing climb upwards. Ultimately, our capital remains strong with a CET1 ratio standing at 13.2% after taking into account the extraordinary share buyback of 1.5 billion euros. Given these strong results, we are upgrading our annual targets on costs and ROTI. We now expect for 2026 a cost reduction of around minus 4% compared with around minus 3% before, and a ROTI around 11% in 2026 versus above 10% before. Now let me hand over to Leo, who will go through our Q2 26 performance. All yours, Leo.

Thank you, Slawomir, and good morning, everyone. Let's now turn to our financial performance for the quarter. The group continued its strong momentum, explained by a solid revenue growth of 4.5% versus Q2 2025, notably driven by sound commercial performance in French retail banking and global banking and investor solutions, as we will see later. At constant perimeter and exchange rates, the revenue growth stands at 6.1% versus Q2 2025. Costs On the other hand, are substantially lower by minus 4.1% versus Q2-25, confirming our strong cost discipline. This translates into further improvement in our operational leverage with a cost-to-income ratio of 58.6% in Q2-26 or down by more than 5 percentage points versus Q2-25. As a quality-wise, the cost of risk continues to be contained at 27 basis points. within the 25 to 30 basis points guidance range. This positive expansion of JOS, together with the contained cost of risk, explains the record quarterly group net income of €1.8 billion, which translates into return on tangible equity of 12.2% versus 9.7% in Q2 2025. Moving on to slide 7, we can see the key drivers behind the revenue growth in Q2 2026. The group recorded a strong 4.5% increase in reported revenues. The first item on the bridge reflects the impact of disposals, with an overall effect of minus 70 million euros. The impact is mainly related to the disposals of activities in Cameroon, Mauritania, Guinea-Conakry, and Equatorial Guinea. At constant perimeter exchange rate, the evolution of group revenues is even higher, at 6.1% versus Q2-25. From a business perspective, revenues in French retail, private banking and insurance increased by 12.6% on a reported basis, mainly driven by a strong performance of net interest income, which grew by 14.9%. Revenues at Global Banking Investor Solutions continue to progress this quarter, an increase of 2.7% versus Q2 2025, or 4% at constant perimeter and exchange rate. Revenues in mobility, international retail banking and financial services decreased by minus 4.9% versus Q2 2025 at constant perimeter and exchange rates. These are results of low revenues in events driven by lower used car sales results, which are still under normalization as guided. Finally, in corporate center, revenues improved by 112 million euros, notably in the back of an optimized management of the excess liquidity. We have repeatedly highlighted in recent quarters rigorous cost discipline is a cornerstone of our 2026 strategic roadmap. And Q226, once again, demonstrates our ability to execute on this commitment. Our costs are down by 4.1% versus Q225 on a reported basis, and by 2.7% at constant perimeter and exchange rate, from ILE supported by structural savings. This decrease is driven by disposals, which explain a variation of 41 million euros, by lower transformation charges, as guided, for minus 8 million euros. We have a higher contribution from charges related to the Global Employee Share Ownership Plan, launched in June 2026, for an amount of 127 million euros, versus 101 in Q2 2025, which, in any case, it's important to remember, it's an item that has no impact on the distributable net income. An update of AFRIC 21 tax estimate includes a reduction of 36 million euros of costs and then we have a net cost decrease of 117 million euros confirming the sustainability of our cost savings efforts quarter after quarter. As a result, groups operating leverage is improving as you can see on the right hand side of the slide. The cost-to-income ratio is falling by more than 5 percentage points from 63.8% Q2 2025 to the current 58.6% in Q2 2026, which is already, by the way, below our below 60% 2026 target. One final highlight in this slide relates to the fact that all pillars are within their end-of-the-year targets. Let's move now to cost of risk on slide 9. Cost of risk for the quarter stands at 27 basis points. and it's fully in line with our target range between 25 and 30 basis points for the year. Business-wise, the cost of risk stands at 38 basis points for RPBI, three for GBIS and 43 for MIBS. Both RPBI and MIBS probably accounted for some generic overlays in S1, S2 provisions. But GBIS had a strong risk management this quarter without any significant defaults. Cost of risk this quarter mainly comprises a stage three provisions. which account for 405 million euros and are slightly up versus Q2-25. Stage 1 and Stage 2 provisions, we had limited reversals of 50 million euros which included overlays offset by some reversals, concealing our prudent approach in this uncertain and complex environment. The result, total outstanding Stage 1 and Stage 2 provisions remain stable, a high level of 2.9 billion euros or two years of cost of risk. NPL ratio stands at 2.7% in Q2-26, down versus both last quarter and last year. And finally, the net coverage ratio remains high at 83% in Q2, slightly up versus 82% in Q1-26. Now I'll turn onto slide 10, where we can see the evolution of our strong capital position. The Group C-Q1 ratio stands at 13.2% at the end of Q2-26, representing a strong buffer over MDA of around 290 basis points. This ratio includes 39 basis point impact from the extraordinary share buyback of 1.5 billion euros as announced previously by Slawomir. Before adjusting the extraordinary share buyback, the CT1 ratio is slightly up compared to Q1-26. Going through the bridge in the slide from left to right, return earnings contributed to an increase of 19 basis points after accruing a 50% Distribution Payout. RWA organic growth represented an impact of minus 8 basis points. And all in all, the recent disposal of sub-chain Cameroon regulatory model changes and other inputs contribute to a net decrease of 6 basis points. In addition, as you can see at the bottom right-hand side of the slide, all other capital ratios are comfortably above the regulatory requirements. On slide 11, liquidity reserves remain high at €339 billion in Q2-26, the balance mix between cash and securities. The liquidity profile of the group remains strong, with sound liquidity ratios. The LCR stands at 146% this quarter, while the NSFR was 115%, both well above regulatory requirements and in line with our steering talk. The 2026 Long-Term Funding Program is already almost completed, with 96% execution rate, driven by a good access to liquidity in all currencies, on the back of strong long-term ratings from all agencies. The deposit base remains strong, granular, and highly diversified. An overall loan-to-deeper ratio stands at 76% at group level. In slide 12, we show a summary of the P&L for the group for Q226, which we will cover in more detail in the following slides. Let's move now to the individual businesses, starting with Subject Network, Private Banking and Insurance. At Subject Network, Q226 loans and standing fell by 2% versus Q225 and are stable compared to Q126. Outstanding deposits fell by 3% versus Q225 or 1% versus Q126 as site deposits are up and term deposits are down. This took place within a context of continued strong growth of retail savings and investment products. It's contributed to the continued solid momentum in overall asset gathering. On the one side, AUMs in private banking reached a record high of 145 billion euros at the end of June 26, increasing by 10% versus Q2 25. On the other side, life insurance outstanding reached a record level of 167 billion, increasing by 11% versus Q2 25. Moving on to BursaBank. Commercial performance remains very strong within the asset gathering administration space, which continued to grow steadily, reaching €84 billion at the end of June. This represents a 16% increase versus Q2 2025, helped by the continued strong increase in deposits of 9% versus the same period last year. Similarly, life insurance outstanding increased by 20% versus Q2 2025, with a high proportion, 51%, of unit leak products. Urso Bank also saw a record number of market orders at 3.7 million, representing an increase of 25% compared to Q2 2025. On the lending side, total loans at standings are up by 8% versus Q2 2025. Urso Bank serves now around 9.1 million clients. After onboarding more than 280,000 new clients in Q2 2026, while the trend rate remains below 4%. In Q2 26, Borzoi Bank's net income stands at 84 million. This is 176 million for the first half of the year or well on track to reach its 2026 target of more than 300 billion euros. Finally, the RONI for Borzoi Bank stood at 60.7%, strong proof of the profitability of this model. Looking at the whole pillar on site 16, French retail, biobanking, and insurance posted a strong increase in revenues of 12.6% versus Q2 2025, which included a 14.9% growth in NII and 11.3% growth in fees. At the same time, operating expenses fell by minus 4.1% from Q2 2025. As a result, the customer income ratio stood at 55.5% in Q2 2026, which represents A substantial improvement of almost 10 percentage points versus Q225. All in all, net income lands at 674 million euros for the quarter, up 38% versus Q225, with a revenue at 14.7% versus 11.2% last year. Moving on to global markets and investor services on site 17. Lower markets revenues declined slightly by 1% versus Q2 2025 compared to a high base case in Q2 last year. And we benefited from strong client activity following the announcement of U.S. tariffs. Equities posted a strong quarter with revenues up 5.5% versus Q2 2025 supported by sound commercial activity. Derivatives, financing, and prime services were the key drivers for this good performance. In fixed income and currencies, revenues declined by 11% versus Q2 2025. As we saw in previous quarters, we're still affected by unfavorable market conditions for our business mix, which, as you know, is mostly exposed to Europe and rates. Lastly, revenues in security services grew by 3.9% versus Q2 2025, on the back of growth in fee income and a stronger net interest income performance. Let's turn to slide 18 on the evolution of financing and advisory. Revenues increased by 8.9% versus Q2 2025 on the back of a strong business dynamics. Revenues in global banking and advisory grew by 9.7% versus Q2 2025, driven by solid origination and strong client activity. By sectors, growth was supported by good momentum in energy, infrastructure, and commodities trade finance. We also saw a strong rebound in investment banking on the back of DCM and ECM revenues, which were driven by landmark transactions and spreading across different sectors and geographies. Lastly, in transaction banking and payment services, revenues increased by 6.7% versus Q2-25. Commercial activity was strong, driving growth in corporate deposits across all regions. Now moving to slide 19 for the overall view on GBIS. The pillar level, revenues grew by 2.7% versus Q2-25. One more quarter, we maintained disciplined cost management. That can be seen through the reduction of operating expenses by minus 2.7% versus Q2-25. The increase of revenues and the reduction of costs explain the cost-to-income ratio of 58.4% in Q2-26, 3.2%. for such points lower than the same ratio in Q2-25. At the same time, the cost of risk was particularly low at three basis points in Q2-26, which compares with 12 last quarter. All in all, GBIS posted a net income of €867 million in Q2-26, up by 15.6% versus Q2-25, and resulting into a very high RONI of 19.9%. Turning now to international retail banking in slide 20. The strong commercial momentum continued in Europe, supported by both KB in the Czech Republic and BRD in Romania, where loans and deposits increased by 9% each versus Q225 at constant perimeter and efforts. This translates into a 3% revenue increase versus Q225, despite lower spreads this quarter. In Africa, the 2% growth in revenue is in line with the lending dynamic. Leopoldo Alvear at 610 basis points in Q226 or up 60 basis points versus Q225, thanks to good dynamics in both leasing and services. These were more than balanced by lower results from used car sales, as the secondary market is still normalizing, as was well anticipated and guided. The average result per unit in the quarter was around €330, within the range of €200 to €600 that AVENS guided for the full year 2026. The customer income already stands at 50.3% and the ROTI at 13.4%, both in line with targets for the year. Finally, looking at consumer finance performance, margins continue to improve, translating into an NII growth of 9% versus Q2 2025. This quarter, we have a base effect due to a positive revaluation of one asset back in Q2 2025, leading to flattened revenues overall this quarter. In slide 22, MIPS overall shows the same level of operational efficiency as last year, reflecting the combination of lower revenues, minus 5%, which were netted through strict cost discipline, reflected in a reduction of cost of minus 4%, both at constant perimeter and FX versus Q2-25. At 52% in Q2-26, the cost-to-income ratio is below the target of 55% for the full year. Costa Rica's quarter stood at 43 basis points, very similar to the 40 basis points that we had in Q126. MIPS fostered a net income of €360 million, down by 8.5% versus Q225 at constant perimeter and exchange rates, but still translating into a good level of profitability with a running at 13.4%. To conclude with the quarterly results, let's move on quickly to slide 23 with the corporate central. Similar to previous quarters, revenues improved versus Q2-25, notably thanks to continued efficient management of liquidity and also positive revaluations of liabilities accounted at fair value through P&L. Operating expenses include 127 million euros related to the Group Employee Share Ownership Program, which as a reminder is a non-cash item and therefore does not affect neither CD1 nor shareholder distribution. Let me now give back the floor to Slawomir.

Thank you, Leo. And turning now to sustainable development. As the energy transition continues to reshape the economy, we believe our deep sector expertise, along with our long-standing client relationships, strongly position us to support the technologies and infrastructure that will decarbonize the economy. For instance, this includes emerging champions such as Fervo Energy in the U.S., who are specializing in next-generation low-carbon energy, but we're also supporting lower-carbon mobility as well as carbon capture and storage infrastructure. And beyond climate, we further strengthened our ambition on nature-based solutions by launching a new partnership with Ardian this quarter. We also renewed our commitments through Act for Nature International for the 2026-2028 period. Together, these initiatives demonstrate how we continue to support our clients' transition and adaptation strategies while developing the sustainable solutions of tomorrow. So to summarize, we are moving forward, making progress, and upgrading our future targets as a result of our building momentum. The conviction behind our actions continues to pay off quarter after quarter, and I can assure you that we will continue to forge ahead with determination, never letting up. We look forward to seeing you again on the 21st of September at our Capital Markets Day. Thank you very much, and we will now open the Q&A session and kindly remind everyone to limit themselves to two questions per person. The floor is yours.

Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone keypad. The first question comes from Tariq El-Majad of Bank of America.

Hi, good morning. Two questions, please. First, I mean, you had a strong cost-cutting in the quarter and the previous quarter's massive jobs and growth driven by French retail and financing advisory. Is that a preview of the CMD to come in September? Should we expect you to be amongst those handful of and many other banks in Europe that cut costs in absolute terms rather than guide for Joe's cost of RWAs or other types of KPIs to appreciate the cost effort. Second question on your equities business. I mean, looks like you were not invited to the equities party this quarter. I mean, joke about, can you explain the lower perf versus European banks, let alone the US? So when you were CEO, I remember, in charge of CAB, you conducted this exercise to de-risk the derivatives business. I mean you worked well to reduce the vol at the lower downside and by preserving the upside but it looks like from this quarter you capped too much the upside. Would you be ready to increase the risk appetite if you see a profitable super cycle in equities business coming in the future years? Thank you.

Thank you, Tarek. Thanks for your questions. So listen, thanks for the first one. I'm just going to write that up into the slides and we're done. So all jokes aside, and without saying anything in advance, but let me put it this way. We are certainly very committed conceptually and I would say from a management experience and vision perspective to have as much as possible in our own hands. So to rely as much as possible on things that we have control over and that allow us to basically improve the company's performance across the board somewhat regardless of what's happening outside, right? Obviously market conditions influenced. and more in September. Since you had this funny... We were invited to the party, but we didn't drink so much alcohol. and profitability over, let's say, the particular opportunity in one particular quarter. This, and you know that I know, Tarek, that you know, this does not prevent us from making, remember the initial range that I gave, which was 4.5 to something, I don't even remember, we're making up to 1.5 billion more than five years ago, right? So, This strategic stance didn't prevent us from doing better, from actually growing and from keeping a high level of revenues close to our highest level historically, especially at constant business model. And clearly from a guidance perspective, I can reiterate what I already said last quarter that we're aiming to be above the top of the range Thank you very much. among the highest in the industry. So that's the strategic stance, that's the strategic mix that we look for and that we execute against, if you will. Now, in terms of are we always going to have that preference and basically leave some money on the table because of this? No. And I think since you pointed out the equities, you need to have in mind two things. Less than in the FIG business, but we do have a focus on Europe, right? And this quarter, you know, the big drivers were Americas, Asia Pacific, and obviously the prime services business in which we do have a capability, but it's not today in terms of size comparable to most of our peers, including the European ones that do have this activity. and so we're not sitting on our hands we are investing in this space we have been acquiring Bernstein was a major building block in that sense and this is going well now we are continuing to develop the systems and the offering to be able over time but on an organic basis to provide the service which was the outperformer this quarter on the equity side so A strategic stance that favors predictability and stability combined with the willingness to invest in the business organically at the right pace to fix some of the business mix or geographical mix issues that we may have when compared to broader scale competitors. Very good. Thank you very much.

The next question is from Julia Miosto of Morgan Stanley.

Yes, thank you very much. I have two questions. And the first one, I'll go back on costs. And I remember, especially Leo, you talked about the IT landscape and being very complicated, having more than 500 providers and wanting to simplify it. So I want to ask you, where are you on this journey? Are you done with the simplification? Have you taken it down to five providers? Or is there more to go there? So an update on that. And then separately, second question is on French retail. So PBT and PPOP grow nicely, so that's great. But when I look at volumes, loans and deposits, and I put together the networks in Bursa Bank, that's actually flat year on year because Bursa Bank is growing, but the networks are instead declining. So how are you thinking about the performance of these two parts of your French retail? Because Bruce Bank is clearly performing very well, but the networks not really. How do you turn around this performance in terms of market share capture? Or maybe is it deliberate? I don't know. Any comment on that? Thank you.

Sure. Thank you very much. On the first question, so as far as, because you're referring specifically to... What we call the concentration or ultra-concentration effort that we had, and actually it was more 700 than 300 initially, down to five main providers today. On this front, we're done. So this is done now. Benefits from this very deep transformation. You can imagine how deep of a change this was, not only from a pure supply standpoint, and many more. Yes, there's the supply chain benefit, but the implied benefits throughout the organization continue basically to generate positive effects in terms of efficiency, both like just sheer cost spending, etc., but also, again, from a strategic standpoint, so like a second layer of improvement over time. So that's very important. Now, in terms of technology specifically, we continue to work on other aspects of... It's a legacy in efficiency. For instance, again, the structure between the coding personnel versus the business analysts, the project managers, et cetera, where historically we've been off benchmarks. And so all this work continues. It's been delivering very significant outcomes, but there is still a potential for us to do better. So that's on IT. In terms of the French retail, you're pointing out Clearly a feature of our business there. But let me take a step back for a second and address the underlying strategic question that you asked. There's a way of thinking about this, which is that we have a French retail business, which is made of distribution networks, product factories, Insurance, of course, being one of them. I mean, insurance is an integral part of what we're doing in the network. And so to some extent, the idea that you would single out, I'm not talking about you here, but generally speaking, that you would single out, for instance, let's say the traditional network without taking into account the massive value creation which is reported here in the insurance company, of which 90% of the business is basically catering life insurance products and P&T products for the network, right? So the value chain is one here, right? On the other hand, in the market, which, of course, you know, is changing in terms of behaviors, in terms of structure, et cetera, et cetera, we do have this remarkable vehicle, which is Boursot Bank, which is, to your point, performing very well. And so if you take a step back, and I'm hinting here at our vision for the future right take a step back and think about this as it's one business right it's one business which is there is a retail client in France that needs banking products on the investment side and on the credit side and how do we approach this market with all the tools we have and as you can see both on the product side on the Thank you very much. Conceptually Sound to single out one of them. Now, just to give you some more, let's say, precise color on the volumes and everything, what you need to have in mind is, again, what we apply to markets or to events, which is a sound long-term strategic view about what's the current situation, what's the current market condition, and how do we navigate this, balancing very, Precisely, fine-tuning precisely the balance between growth and profitability. So bear with me. What I'm hinting at here is today you have, and you've seen that in the numbers, obviously side deposits which are a significant opportunity always for banks for obvious reasons. And you have term deposits which, to be frank, are less of an opportunity for banks. And so what you see in our numbers is the focus that we have there which is, again, we don't need to go after the last dollar of not so profitable deposits and this is what we're doing, right? Not everybody in the market is in the same position, right? Not everybody has the same loan-to-deposit ratio as we do but we have structurally a little bit of a luxury there to fine-tune our approach slightly better for the sake of generating value. So that's on the deposit side but then you need to think also about the fact that On the loan side, first of all, the macro, you know, you saw the French figures, which are slightly, I would say, slightly better than feared by some, in line with consensus, but they're not stellar. So in that context, from a macro perspective, you will not have, like, massive growth in terms of inventory of credit, especially as most of that inventory is geared toward investments, and as you've seen in the GDP report, are not the most dynamic component of the GDP in France today for obvious reasons also linked to the macro context. Now, we are also there, not unlike in the other business, focused on making sure that we don't spread our capital investments too thin across the entire client base on the corporate side. and so you also see some of that effect which is we've been pickier and pickier in terms of how we allocate capital in this particular segment which again represents very good opportunities in a number of cases but also the risk of diluted returns in a number of other cases. And so what you see here is us fine-tuning this approach very carefully so that we strike the right balance between the growth opportunity or yeah, growth opportunity and profitability. Hopefully that gives you some color. Thank you. Next.

The next question is from Delphine Lee of JP Morgan.

Yes, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. So first of all, just wanted to come back on French retail. So NII growth has been, you know, amazing and and that has been held by the stabilization of the mix that you've talked about. Now, just kind of looking forward, do you think that you can continue to grow a double digit assuming that this deposit mix remains the same? Do you think that this NII growth can still be as strong in coming years? And then my second question is on the buyback and capital return in general. Even with 1.5 billion, your CQ1 ratio is still 13.2% and you're going to continue to generate a bit of capital in the second half. So just wondering about your commitment to distributing that excess capital closer to that 13% level. Or are you thinking that it is better today to have a little bit of margin above that? Thank you very much.

Thank you, Lothian. Listen, on NII growth, I'll be very specific. So we are, the great performance that you see, mid-teens, is clearly supported by the cost of funding decrease because of the sharp repricing down of Livrea last year, right? And remember, last year we benefited from two repricings down and so right now in the reference you have only one. So the point is as we move forward in the year, you're going to start to have comparisons to pricing down of Livrea. It's a way of saying, well, everything else being equal, you will not see the same level of performance, but what you will see is what we've been saying for a Thank you very much. is, you know, hedged almost entirely for year one in terms of sensitivity, and then a substantial portion of year two is also hedged, so you will have an evolution there, a positive one if the rates stay slightly higher than in the initial, let's say, scenario, but it's going to be a process. So this is how you should think about this. There is the Olivier effect. Now, don't forget what we discussed in the previous question. Burso Banque is having a... Leopoldo Alvear There are processes, we accumulate capital every day as we go. Some of the big regulatory headwinds like FRTB, yes, kind of moved off the horizon, but on the other hand, from a simulation perspective, we need to make sure we understand where we put that in the trajectory, if at all, and so on and so forth. So, Knowing that there are still some small moving parts in terms of the exact timing and temporality of things, we maintain, I don't know, 10 basis points of extra caution, but this is frankly a detail at this point from our standpoint. The commitment to run the ship at close to 13 CET1 is totally unchanged.

Thank you very much.

You were discussing in response to, I think it was Julia's question, looking at the French retail incorporating Borso in a holistic manner. What's the fungibility of the Borso Bank business into, say, the red brand French retail of Societe Generale because there's a notable gap in terms of the resourcing behind Thank you. Just a small...

A small precision, it's red and black. I'd rather not say on red only. That's it. I'm not going to say anything else. Red and black, yes. No, just kidding. Fungibility and how the thing interacts, I would say from a strategic standpoint, what's important is that it's a market opportunity. The retail client in France may have All kinds of needs and who can be very different, right? You will have clients who will only go for the red and black for all kinds of reasons, who don't want to do anything else but red and black. And obviously at the other end of the spectrum, you have those who want to do only the blue and pink, which is Boursaumont. So in between, you have all the shades of the rainbow, right? And so the idea here is to recognize that there's one market One opportunity that needs specific addressing through various vehicles. So that's more how we think about this. Not so much what's the fungibility of the static plan basis today and so on and so forth, but what's the opportunity in terms of growth and profitability if we see the market opportunity as one and if we see our means to take advantage of the opportunity as one. Basically, that's the way we think about this. And when you do this, going forward, the fungibility or more accurately in our strategic framework, the opportunity to get advantage, to take advantage of all the opportunities Well, it's high. And from that perspective, the fungibility, if you will, is high, especially when you look at it forward, right, on a forward-looking basis. In terms of the organic growth, listen, for the year, the guidance of 2% is unchanged. You have some quarterly volatility. We are still committed, obviously, to be as capital efficient as possible. So when we have, you know, interesting solutions in terms of, and I'm not talking about SLTs here, but more in terms of distribution, in terms of, you know, Thank you very much.

The next question, sir, is from Anke Roeningen of RBC.

Yeah, thank you for taking my questions. I just have two small ones first, please. The first one is cost. I just wonder in terms of your guidance that you can do better than previously expected. What are sort of like structural input factors have driven this? And obviously that, I guess, would educate your presentation of the strategic update And then just like a housekeeping question. For the strategic update, I guess your last plans have always been sort of like four years, which would suggest 2030. I just wanted to confirm that and prepare my spreadsheet.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You're very well organized, so I'm going to try and help you with that. So starting with that last question. So the plan is going to be 2029. But we will, you know, as much as possible, right, because it is a strategic update. We will, you know, give you some of the thoughts about the future, but the thoughts about the future will be obviously more qualitative than quantitative, but the plan formally will be a 2029 plan. Thank you. In terms of the costs, I think, so once again, right, A few things. One, technology. I addressed it earlier with a question which has been a significant driver of both inefficiency in the past at a both sheer spending level but also in terms of coherence, in terms of strategic vision for the infrastructure and the application set and so on and so forth. And so it has been a substantial source of efficiency, both in financial terms, reduction of the spending there, while actually improving KRIs and KPIs across the board there. That's very important. But it's also something which will continue, maybe at a slower pace than in the last three years, but it will continue to drive substantial improvements, again, both directly, but also as the landscape, if you will, and many more. For the last 18 months, group-wide efforts where literally thousands of our colleagues are working every day both in identifying, imagining actions that can be taken to improve efficiency and lower costs at a very granular level right where they operate, whatever it is that they operate for the bank, across businesses, functions, and so on and so forth. And this effort, which is an ongoing effort, the entire EXCO is committed to this and works every single week under my chairmanship on this effort. And so all that has generated thousands, right, close to now 10,000 initiatives that are helping still today, every day, improving the company. And what you see here is the combination of all these effects continuing to yield positive results in terms of efficiency. And lastly, I want to say that all of that work resulted in something else, In a byproduct, which is a positive one, which is in the ability of management, of course, but not only management, and that's what's important, at a granular level, increase the ability of people to exercise very acute scrutiny over hiring and spending, right? And so, if you will, we moved closer to smaller businesses, in terms of cost management and owner-operated businesses in terms of cost management versus the history of being a huge 100,000 or 120,000 company all over the world that generates by the sheer size and complexity inefficiencies. So the level of scrutiny over the expenses is much higher and the combinations of all three things continue to yield results and will continue to yield results in the future in terms of efficiencies. Thank you.

Thank you. The next question, sir, is from Pierre Chedeville of CIC Market Solutions.

Yes, good morning. First question, I'm coming back on the retail. Friends, we see that actually you have discussed that you're very dynamic in terms of fees. and I was wondering you as a CEO if you have to rate your network from a commercial perspective I mean motivation, implication to sell products and not loans and deposits but other products What would be on a scale from 1 to 10 your rating and do you think that you have more to do after what we can say quite a shake-up of your management last years? Second question is regarding events. You mentioned a stabilization in the fleet as far as I understand. I was a little bit curious about that. Is it due to the fact that you improve your margin so you have a price effect which is degrading the volume or is there anything else there? Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. So on the first question, so on the rating, well, it depends if I'm going for my Frenchness or my Polish or American roots, right? If I go for the French thing, I will rate very low and I will be very unhappy. If I go for the other roots, I would be much more positive. So beyond the little joke, I think, one, you see, look at the numbers, right? We have a double-digit growth in fees across the traditional network. We have a stellar performance in terms of client acquisition at Boursault while reducing substantially the expense on the customer acquisition costs and the balances there which shows the client development after the client acquisition is very strong. And finally, but very importantly, we continue for the Thank you very much. that on the wealth side, on the advisory side, well beyond indeed loans, basic loans and basic deposits, we are generating a lot of value from our commercial performance. So these are the proof points. Now, is this all perfect? No. We can do better. We are still working hard to improve the performance in terms of Client Satisfaction, etc. We are still fine-tuning a lot of things in terms of how we want to, to my earlier point, how we want to optimize our ability to seize the opportunities in this market. But from a commercial dynamic, with all the figures I gave you, I mean, we are doing quite well. And I'm very thankful, grateful to our teams who are doing an outstanding job in the field every day for our customers. In terms of the events, listen, you would expect that. In coherence with everything I said about virtually any business today, and we talked about quite a few, we are trying to run this strategically, right? So there was a stance that was taken by management, by the chairperson, my deputy at Avens, by the Avens management for years now, which is, It's a market where a lot of moving pieces create issues both in terms of margins and in terms of risk management from a residual value perspective and I think that you see that in the market very clearly, right? We had taken a stance which is we need in these super volatile environment where dust has not yet settled in terms of the EVs and other aspects of the business The stance was, let's make sure that we run a profitable business, let's make sure that we take advantage of all the synergies which we have, and let's make sure that we build strong foundation for times when growth is going to be more linear, more clear, more predictable, and less risky. It's fundamental to remember that you need to manage risks in this business. And what do you have? As a result of that combination, you have a business that is Plattish in terms of NEA slightly down, sharply up in terms of margins. That has Rony, which is already in line with the objectives that we set at the respective capital market days, and which for the cost to income, for instance, is 52%, which is probably best in class in this business. This is simply the philosophy of substance management applied to that particular business and we're very happy with the current performance.

Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from Alberto Artoni of Intesa San Paolo.

Thank you. Thank you very much for taking my question. Good morning. I have two, just a quick follow-up on French retail and then on Avens. On the French retail, my question is just going forward, have you given thoughts about the possibility of the possibility of the livret A going up? Because that's what it seems to be happening very shortly. And secondly, do you think that there's going to be more upside from the liability side going forward or from the asset side as that's... My question in French for today. And then on Avens, I've seen that the used car sales results have come down to the lower end, close to the lower end of the range that you indicated. So do you think that there's still room for some normalization or we're pretty much done there? Thank you very much.

Thank you. On the first point, we actually, in our trajectories, have factored in a slight increase in the cost of funding, if you will. And we also, at this point in the scenario, but I mean, you have to recognize that the world is what it is, right? And the same conversation a month ago would have been different. But this is why, again, we're trying to to be on the conservative end in terms of the way we think about the possibilities. And to some extent, let me comment on your second question here, just as a matter of conceptual soundness, so to speak. You know, we are still within our range while something very specific happened this year, which is an unexpected hit on the ICE vehicles market dynamics directly, directly linked to the Iran war. So, and still, you know, we're within our range, right? So it shows you that what we're trying to do, right? No one's perfect, right? But what we're trying to do is to have a broad vision for the environment so that we're not overly surprised and that we can basically swallow within our decent set of parameters in terms of profitability and so on. whatever happens. So going back to Livra, we do have a scenario which first caters for an increase and then a decrease afterwards and it would obviously affect but at this point we believe to a small extent the numbers for us. On the asset side obviously there's the opportunity of the repricing of the liabilities. Now the issue is that the hedging policy which basically limits short-term impacts and smooths them over as we make sure that the whole business is properly hedged especially year one and year two out but any movement that's favorable there eventually makes its way into the P&L. Finishing on AVENS, Listen, again, I'm not going to repeat what I just said. In this very specific context, I think we were able to capture all kinds of scenarios in the range we've given. There is pressure in this market, and most importantly, we believe that final, longer-term features of that market are not entirely settled yet between The local production cars, the Chinese cars, the pace of adoption, the regulatory uncertainty to some extent, etc. There's still a number of moving parts, and we are navigating quite successfully through all this uncertainty by being very reasonable and protecting margins while protecting the business, but not growing it, let's say, unconsciously, both in terms of margins and risk. So you should always expect that from us. and again, the financial performance is very strong because we also do focus on the synergies, on the cost management and eventually, you know, we are already in line with our end of year targets there. Thank you.

Mr. Krupa, there are no...

Thank you very much, everybody.

Please go ahead, sir. Excuse me, sir.

Please go ahead.

No, I just wanted to let you know that there weren't more questions registered. Thank you, sir. Back to you.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Listen, everybody, thank you very much for your time. I know you're super busy these days and so thanks for joining. Thanks for your questions. I wish you a great summer. I do hope to see you all in September, September 21st in London and we will have the opportunity to talk about a number of things that are of interest to you and to our investors. So thank you very much. Take care. Bye-bye. Thank you.

Bye-bye.

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