Report: SocGen’s Russian bank unit to cut 1,500 jobs in 2015

MOSCOW, Feb 13 (PRIME) -- French financial corporation Societe Generale (SocGen) plans to lay off around 1,500 employees in Russia in 2015 as the country’s economic contraction squeezes profitability, Bloomberg reported on Friday citing a source with direct knowledge of the discussions.

Societe Generale’s Russian banking business, which includes Rosbank, consumer banking unit, mortgage lender Delta Credit and car-loan unit Rusfinance, posted an 11 million euro (U.S. $12.6 million) loss in October–December 2014, the bank said in a statement Thursday.

Societe Generale Deputy Chief Executive Officer Severin Cabannes, speaking in a Bloomberg TV interview Thursday, said he expects bad loans to continue to rise in Russia this year amid a “difficult macroeconomic situation” and high inflation. The bank also said it will probably post a loss in Russia this year.

Polina Chuvilina, a spokeswoman for Rosbank in Moscow, declined to comment when reached by phone Thursday.

Societe Generale cut about the same numbers of positions in Russia in 2014, the source said. The Paris-based bank employs about 20,500 in Russia, mainly at Rosbank.

Societe Generale is among the European banks with the largest lending exposures to Russia. The bank, which had branches in Russia before World War I, re-entered the market after the Soviet Union collapsed. The French bank bought out most of Rosbank’s minority investors in April after purchasing a majority stake in 2008, months before the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

End