DBRS Assigns Ratings to SocGen Debt issued through Certain Offshore Subs & Offshore Branches

DBRS Inc. (DBRS) has today assigned a rating of AA (low) with a Negative trend to the Senior Unsecured Notes (the Notes) issued by Société Générale S.A. (SocGen), Société Générale Acceptance NV (SGA), Société Générale Option Europe (SGOE), and Société Générale Issuer SA (SGIS) and a rating of R-1 (middle) with a Stable trend to the Short-Term Instruments issued by SocGen, SGA, SGOE, and SGIS under the EUR 125 billion Euro Medium Term Note Programme (EMTN Programme) of SocGen (the Issuer and Guarantor) and SGA (Issuer), SGOE (Issuer), and SGIS (Issuer). The notes issued by SGA, SGOE, and SGIS under the EMTN Programme are directly, unconditionally and irrevocably guaranteed by SocGen. Accordingly, the ratings on these notes are equal to that of SocGen’s Senior Unsecured Debt & Deposits rating. These ratings apply only to the Notes issued by SGA, SGOE, SGIS under this EMTN Programme and are subject to the maintenance of SocGen’s Senior Unsecured Debt & Deposits rating of AA (low).

DBRS has also assigned a rating of R-1 (middle) with a Stable trend to the Guaranteed Short-Term Instruments issued by Société Générale North America, Inc. (SGNA) under the USD 60 billion US-Commercial Paper Programme (USCP Programme) of SocGen and SGNA. These guaranteed notes issued by SGNA under the USCP Programme are unconditionally and irrevocably guaranteed by SocGen. Accordingly, the ratings on these notes are equal to that of SocGen’s Short-Term Debt & Deposits rating. These ratings apply only to the Notes issued by SGNA under this USCP Programme and are subject to the maintenance of SocGen’s Short-Term Debt & Deposits rating of R-1 (middle).

Concurrently, DBRS has assigned a Senior Unsecured Debt and Deposits rating of AA (low) and a Short-Term Instruments rating of R-1 (middle) to several of SocGen’s branches, including SocGen New York Branch, SocGen Australia Branch, SocGen Hong-Kong Branch, and SocGen Singapore Branch. The trend on the Senior Unsecured Debt and Deposits rating is Negative, the trend on the Short-Term Instruments is Stable. These ratings are subject to the maintenance of SocGen’s Senior Long-Term Debt & Deposits rating of AA (low) and Short-Term Debt & Deposits rating of R-1 (middle).

Notes:
All figures in Euros (EUR) unless otherwise noted.

The principal applicable methodology is the Global Methodology for Rating Banks and Banking Organisations. Other methodologies used include the DBRS Criteria – Intrinsic and Support Assessments and DBRS Criteria: Rating Bank Subordinated Debt and Hybrid Instruments with Discretionary Payments. These can be found at: http://www.dbrs.com/about/methodologies.

[Amended on January 12, 2015 to reflect actual methodologies used.]

The sources of information used for this rating include the issuer. DBRS considers the information available to it for the purposes of providing this rating was of satisfactory quality.

This rating is endorsed by DBRS Ratings Limited for use in the European Union.

Lead Analyst: Roger Lister
Rating Committee Chair: Alan G. Reid
Initial Rating Date: 26 July 2001
Most Recent Rating Update: 30 May 2013

For additional information on this rating, please refer to the linking document below.