SOCIT GNRALE

in full Socit Gnrale Pour Favoriser Le Dvelopment Du Commerce Et De L'industrie En France, major French commercial bank operating a general-banking and foreign-exchange business worldwide. Headquarters are in Paris. The bank was established in 1864 to provide general-banking and investment services. It was nationalized in 1946, when the state, acting on legislation passed the previous year, took over the central bank, the Banque de France, and the four leading commercial banks. These banks accounted for half of all the assets and liabilities among French banks. Socit Gnrale provides general banking, investment advising, securities underwriting, foreign-currency exchange, and computer services, with subsidiaries and branches throughout the world. In 1972 its New York branches were taken over by European American Bank and Trust Company.