Société Générale is initiating a programme to reinvent itself in the wake of the financial crisis, with tighter cost and risk controls and a shift away from risky trading towards the safer realms of private banking.

SG Ambition 2015, a five-year plan to be launched next year, will see the French bank adopt a zero- tolerance stance on errors and unapproved risk-taking in a bid to put the embarrassment of last year’s Jérôme Kerviel rogue trading incident behind it.