PARIS (Reuters) – French bank Societe Generale on Tuesday raised its forecasts for 2021 as the lender swung back to a profit in the second quarter on lower pandemic-related charges for bad loans and a rebound in its French retail banking.
Societe Generale now expects revenue to grow in all its businesses this year, including in French retail banking where it had previously anticipated growth between minus 1% and 1%.
France’s third-largest listed lender, after BNP Paribas and Credit Agricole SA, said its cost of risk, which reflects provisions against bad loans, would be lower than expected in 2021, between 20 and 25 basis points, down from a previous forecast of between 30 and 35 basis points.
The lender posted second-quarter net income of 1.44 billion euros ($1.71 billion), compared with a loss of 1.26 billion euros a year earlier. Revenue rose 18.2% to 6.26 billion euros.
($1 = 0.8418 euros)
(Reporting by Matthieu Protard; Editing by Anil D’Silva and Christian Schmolllinger)
