Derivatives house of the year, Singapore: Societe Generale

Last year, Societe Generale’s Singapore and South-east Asia business became the bank’s second-largest revenue contributor in Asia, overtaking Japan and Korea for the first time. The years of investment made in its Lion City platform are now clearly beginning to bear fruit.

“South-east Asia is a growing region, and Singapore is an important wealth management hub,” says Samuel Henry, head of global markets for South-east Asia at SocGen. “More and more hedge funds and asset managers are establishing themselves here, so this is a very important region for us. We’ve been investing in our Singapore platform in line with our global and Asia strategic objectives.”

Besides wealth management, Singapore is also renowned for being the Asia-Pacific region’s largest market for foreign exchange trading.

So, as SocGen has worked to strengthen its fixed income and currencies (FIC) business over recent years Singapore has become ever more important. Taking on a larger role in FIC, for instance, has required the bank to build up its trading capabilities in the city state.

Five years ago, SocGen had only two FX traders in Singapore, both of which were mainly focused on the emerging market currencies in South-east Asia. By the start of this year, the numbers of FX traders in Singapore had reached more than a dozen – and the bank still hopes to grow this team further. SocGen declined to give precise figures on the headcount.

“This significant investment in our trading capabilities has allowed us to become much more relevant to the Singapore dollar and South-east Asian markets, broadening our FIC capabilities across the region, including in FX options,” says Henry.

SocGen also relocated several G10 traders from Hong Kong to Singapore. In addition, the bank’s head of G10 rates trading ex-Japan role was moved from Hong Kong to Singapore.

The bank’s decision to shift its FIC e-trading unit from Hong Kong to Singapore was another significant step in the restructuring of its business.

“Hong Kong is perceived more as an equity hub, while Singapore is a FIC hub,” says Henry. “Following key strategic decisions over the past two years to rebalance our regional footprint, that is now reflected in our business.”

This build-out has also extended into cross-asset financing. The bank brought in a senior salesperson to develop the business and has since added junior sales coverage, with a focus on financing solutions for financial institutions. This includes repo across fixed income and equity assets.

“The expansion gives the bank another avenue to deepen relationships with institutional clients while building out a broader cross-asset offering from Singapore,” says Henry.

According to clients, the bank has indeed gone from strength to strength in FIC derivatives and structured solutions over the past year.

“Societe Generale used to be ranked number five or six in our panel of FX banks, but over the past couple of years they have climbed up to the top two or three,” says one FX manager within the treasury department of a large corporate. “They are always there with new ideas and willing to listen to what our business needs. They have provided us with a lot of valuable advice, which we have already deployed in our daily operations, helping us to better manage our FX exposures and save on costs.”

Agility and adaptability

Praise for SocGen’s growing FX capabilities reflects a broader shift in the bank’s global markets strategy – one that has made Singapore more central to the bank’s derivatives business.

For years SocGen’s name was near-synonymous with equity derivatives and equity-linked structured products. But over the past four years SocGen has continuously stepped up investment in its FIC capabilities globally, seeking to build greater scale in flow trading and increase the contribution that FIC makes to its global markets business.

Prior to 2022, around 80–90% of SocGen’s structured products business in Apac was linked to equities. This is now evenly split between equities and other asset classes, says Henry, with fixed income playing an increasingly prominent role. And while 2026 may turn out to have been a bumper year for many equity derivatives franchises, SocGen’s executives insist that the strategic shift to FIC has helped the bank to achieve a better overall business balance.

And a big part of that shift has run through Singapore. It is where SocGen has concentrated its FIC trading in the region, made senior hires, and looked to build out cross-asset financing.

“Agility and adaptability is very important to be successful in this business, and we’ve been really good at across the region,” says Henry. “By continuing to invest in Singapore and build out our capabilities here, we can respond even more effectively to our clients, capturing opportunities in the market as and when we see them.”