Lhe world is shrinking visibly. It was once vast and full of possibilities, now it is folded up and full of pitfalls. Societe Generale is in the process of making the bitter experience of it. The French bank, which prided itself on its power in Russia since the takeover of Rosbank in 2008, has retired, in good order, but without glory. It will cost him more than three billion euros to sell his establishment of 12,000 people to someone close to Russian power.
With the revenge of history on the economy, geopolitical risk returns at full speed. Suddenly the distance becomes dangerous again. China worries, and Africa despairs. BNP Paribas knows something about it. In 2014, the first European bank was fined a colossal 9 billion dollars by the American authorities for carrying out illegal financial transactions with three countries subject to economic sanctions: Iran, Cuba and Sudan. In the latter country, the establishment, which pleaded guilty, is accused of having financed war crimes and terrorism.
The end of an illusion
Cooled, BNP Paribas has chosen strategically to concentrate its forces on Europe, which represents almost two thirds of its activity, while keeping a foothold in the United States. It is therefore methodically pursuing its withdrawal from Africa. It has withdrawn from Burkina Faso, Guinea, Gabon, Comoros, Mali, Tunisia and, more recently, Senegal. According to the African press, she is in the process of negotiating her exit from Côte d’Ivoire, her last major settlement in West Africa.
It must be said that the international has rarely kept his promises
For five years, French banks have been cutting back on international markets outside the euro zone. Société Générale even ceded its activities in Poland, Bulgaria and Croatia. The firm says it wants to focus now on its retail banking in France, with the merger of its networks and the integration of the online bank ING. It must be said that the international has rarely kept his promises. Subsidiaries are often at the limit of profitability. For Russia, it took years to generate a small profit.
Manufacturers are also tempted by withdrawal, as evidenced by the sale by the Bolloré group of its very powerful logistics activities in West Africa, to concentrate on the development of its media subsidiary Vivendi. Financial crisis, health crisis, political crisis, all this sounds like the end of an illusion, that of a sweet trade bringing prosperity and democracy to the ends of the planet. The globalization of trade is declining, fragmenting into regional hubs, faced with the awakening of passions.