French banking giant Societe Generale is celebrating its 150th anniversary with events and new initiatives all throughout 2014.

Turning 150 is probably more than most of us can expect, even with the happy effects of modern medicine. Yet, several grand institutions in the finance industry are rounding 100 or more, and choosing to do so in style.

Not to be outshone by Swiss banks dating back as late as the 1700s (private banks Lombard Odier and Pictet & Cie being among the oldest), French banking giant Societe Generale is celebrating its 150th anniversary all throughout 2014.

The bank, which was founded by a group of entrepreneurial industrialists and financiers, had its imperial decree signed by Napoléon III on 4 May 1864, and claims to be the first institution to adopt the so-called universal banking model.

“Few banks have made 150 years of history on their own. Our vision, centred on our client relationships, is what is guiding us through the changes taking place in our business lines. This 150th anniversary is an opportunity for us to take strength from our origins so that we can better project ourselves into the future, reinvent our business lines and build the banking relationship of tomorrow,” said chairman and chief executive Frédéric Oudéa, when kicking off the celebrations.

To this end, the bank said it has local events planned in branches all over France, including a travelling exhibition and various quizzes. Client events will also be taking place in several of the group international locations, such as Asia, Russia, the US and London, in addition to large-scale employee events such as concerts, sports events and a group breakfast including all its 154,000 employees around the globe.
In addition, Societe Generale re-launched its institutional website this week to make it more user-friendly, well-integrated with social media, and crucially, making it compatible with mobiles, tablets and smartphones.

Curiously, the website will also include a virtual tour of the bank’s history, which coincidently will also be published in nine theme booklets on topics such as international expansion, evolution of innovation servicing clients, brand history from the first advertisement campaigns to twitter. This is part of the initiative Mission Histoire, which was created by historians and former employees in 2005 to exploit the bank's archives.

This includes details on how the bank survived two world wars, became state-owned and then later privatised again, endured financial crises and scandals of late and how the bank became one of the first institutions to provide banking services in North Africa.

That said, all that’s really left to do is to say “Happy Birthday Soc Gen” - here’s hoping your 32 million clients give you an amazing 150th year.

(To view a recent interview with senior French and UK executives at the private banking arm of SocGen, click here.)