How to strike a balance between the caution needed to protect the bank's results and the commitment of expanding operations further, this was the main challenge in 2010 for Guy Poupet, chairman of BRD-SocGen, in the first year since he took the reins of the second biggest bank on the market.
"It was a challenging year professionally because of the economic environment and the ensuing difficulties for the banking system, but I've had much tougher periods during my career," the BRD head says.
Poupet, 59, has a 36-year career with Societe Generale French group behind him, a period during which he filled top management positions on various markets such as Argentina, Senegal, the Czech Republic and Egypt.
"As bank chairman, you do not come to choose the environment where you operate. Your job is to manage operations as well as you can, irrespective of the environment, and in a banker's life there are good, as well as bad years".
The bank ended 2010 with net income worth 501 million RON, down 36% from 2009, and yet the biggest on the market.
Still, Poupet says the French do not have a culture of aggressiveness on the market, so that BRD will not be rushing to enter the war of loan refinancing. Profit is still the bank's priority. How to strike a balance between the caution needed to protect the bank's results and the commitment of expanding operations further, this was the main challenge in 2010 for Guy Poupet, chairman of BRD-SocGen, in the first year since he took the reins of the second biggest bank on the market.
"It was a challenging year professionally because of the economic environment and the ensuing difficulties for the banking system, but I've had much tougher periods during my career," the BRD head says.
Poupet, 59, has a 36-year career with Societe Generale French group behind him, a period during which he