Finance
Societe Generale and IFC seal new agreement to accelerate on sustainable finance – Société Générale
Societe Generale and IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, have signed a Collaboration Framework Agreement to accelerate on sustainable finance in developing countries, as part of both institutions’ shared ambition to contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and strong commitment to the environmental transition and sustainability.
As part of this agreement, the two institutions aim to further develop wide-ranging financing solutions such as project co-financings or risk sharing agreements, contributing to private sector mobilization in support of the climate transition. In particular, the agreement will support sustainable finance projects to facilitate access to clean energy, water and other infrastructure and to foster sustainable agribusiness, as well as the financing of projects empowering women entrepreneurs in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Societe Generale and IFC will also share approaches and expertise on methodologies and frameworks aimed at measuring and monitoring impact.
This new Collaboration Framework Agreement builds on a longstanding partnership, solid cooperation track record, as well as a joint commitment towards the SDGs and rigorous environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards. Over the last 10 years, the two institutions have co-financed about 60 transactions with other partners, representing more than US$20 billion in new investment flows into developing countries. IFC has also provided approximately US$1.3 billion in financing to Societe Generale, for instance to enable the scaling up of green vehicle fleets.
This partnership will draw on the complementary strengths of the two institutions. Societe Generale will bring its leading expertise in structured finance and ESG, its ability to distribute assets to investors and its global reach. IFC will leverage its experience as the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in developing countries, including its balance sheet strength and in-depth knowledge of developing economies.
Slawomir Krupa, Chief Executive Officer of Societe Generale, comments:
“I am delighted to strengthen our cooperation with IFC with the signing of this Collaboration Framework Agreement, building on solid relationships between our institutions established over time. By joining forces, our ambition is to increase our contribution to sustainable projects in developing countries, in relation with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. As part of our strategic plan and ESG commitments, developing partnerships with the most relevant stakeholders helps us design the best solutions to address the challenges of the environmental transition and the need for sustainable infrastructures in developing countries.”
Makhtar Diop, Managing Director, IFC, says:
“This agreement will deepen the long-standing relationship between IFC and Societe Generale, allowing us to work together to deploy scalable private sector investments in emerging markets. We look forward to an enhanced partnership to provide the critical financing needed for projects with a transformative impact on people and local economies.”
Press contacts
Societe Generale
Fanny Rouby_+33 1 57 29 11 12_ fanny.rouby@socgen.com
IFC
Lamia Oualalou_ +33 7 89 07 99 13_ loualalou@ifc.org
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the city state’s central bank and financial regulator, has joined forces with major financial institutions and FinTechs to release a white paper aimed at keeping AI agents in finance operating within safe limits.
The paper, called Safeguards for Agentic Finance at Runtime (SAFR), lays out an industry-built framework designed to let AI agents perform financial tasks in a manner that is safe, secure and dependable. It has been produced under BuildFin.ai, the MAS programme that backs the responsible creation and rollout of AI tools across the financial sector.
The push comes as AI agents take on more autonomous work at a pace that makes hands-on human oversight impractical. In response, firms require real-time controls that keep agent behaviour inside the mandates, policies and risk limits they have defined. SAFR answers this with a series of governance checkpoints that check and log each action an agent proposes before that task is carried out.
The framework extends the AI Risk Management toolkit created through MAS’ Project Mindforge, concentrating on how protections can be put into practice at the moment an agent acts. The white paper maps out how measures such as policy bound execution, real time validation, auditability and interoperability can be woven into system operations, giving institutions the confidence to deploy agents consistently.
Industry participants have already tested SAFR in several settings. These include agent-assisted payments and treasury work, where agents handle routine transactions inside set mandates to cut friction and lift efficiency; wealth management and advisory processes, where agents examine documents and produce structured assessments within tightly defined task limits to speed up compliance reviews; and client engagement, where agents create insights and draft materials within approved content boundaries so staff can serve clients more productively.
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Talking about finances can be stressful, but it’s even more stressful if you’re not sure what advice is good and what advice might put you in a worse position than you started in.
Recently, a Reddit user who goes by market_vision1 asked, “What is the worst financial advice people still repeat?” I took out a little pen and paper while I was reading through these, like, “Lemme write that down. And that. Oh! And that, too!” I’m curious what you think, though. Are all of these things we should avoid financially?
1. “One of the more damaging ideas out there is ‘Oh, you’re young, don’t worry about money, just go have fun and worry about it when you are older.’ Of course, the number one regret I hear from clients nearing retirement is that they wish they had just started saving when they were younger.”
—u/hems86
2. “The ‘tax bracket’ myth should be illegal. My uncle turned down a $10K raise because he thought he’d ‘lose money.’ He literally paid $10,000 to avoid $2,200 in taxes. That’s not a tax strategy. That’s a $7,800 donation to the Dumba— Fund, and he’s the chair.”
—u/Serious_Cress5040
Related: “31 Things Only Super Wealthy People Can Buy That You Probably Don’t Even Know Exist”
3. “People living outside of their means and not realizing it. They say things like, ‘You deserve X, don’t settle for less.’ Most of the people I see who are broke are not 100% victims of the system. The majority of people waste their money on dumb stuff that they can’t afford. They’ll tell me they’ve cut out all unnecessary spending, but when I look at their actual expenses, I see otherwise. Spending $800 a month on DoorDash, financing a new car with a $900 monthly payment, going on international vacations, spending 70% of their income on rent in a fancier apartment when there are options for cheaper living.”
—u/hems86
4. “I’m a financial planner, and some of the worst advice I’ve ever heard is ‘Don’t pay off your credit cards in full. Carrying a balance on your credit card builds your credit; paying it off every month hurts your score.’ People say this to me all the time when I ask why they carry a balance on their card with 25% interest when they have more than enough to pay it off.”
—u/hems86
5. “It’s not so much advice as it is a financial choice. I know people who are taking out 96-month loans on cars they never should’ve considered in the first place, just because they can make the car note when it’s stretched over eight years. They never considered the interest on the loan plus the rate cars depreciate and are befuddled when they can’t afford to trade it in.”
Finance
I’m a 25-year-old grad student on a budget. I’ve struggled to accept financial help from my Boomer and Gen X friends.
In August, I quit my steady job as a New York City public high school teacher to start a full-time graduate program in Manhattan. I worried about the choice not only because I loved my work with the kids, but also because I had traded a consistent paycheck and affordable health insurance for tens of thousands of dollars in tuition.
When I was teaching, I prepared for the cost by scrimping to save every cent I could. But my account balance still wouldn’t fully cover two years of school and living expenses.
Throughout my savings journey, I learned a lot of lessons, especially from my older friends.
I jumped into major money-saving mode
As a result, I redoubled my frugal efforts. I made a rule that I wouldn’t eat out or order takeout unless it was someone’s birthday. I asked to meet people in parks rather than restaurants and suggested $5 happy-hour spots from a meticulously crafted list on my phone.
On rare occasions when I dined out, I looked at the prices before deciding what to order and pored over the bill with a calculator.
It worked. While it was still difficult to watch my savings dwindle — buoyed occasionally by small deposits from part-time jobs — I kept my costs (relatively) low for a 20-something in the city. Most friends understood my restrictions or were in similar situations.
I worried when my older friends routinely paid for me
But this approach didn’t work as well with my five older friends from my intergenerational writer’s group. We’d been meeting weekly on Zoom for several years when we started visiting each other in our home states across the country. As women in their 40s and 60s in dual-income households with established careers, they understandably gravitated toward nicer places where the cheapest cocktail cost $20. My dive bars with weirdly stained walls weren’t going to cut it.
When I visited two of these friends in Chicago, I anticipated that we’d go to swanky spots and saved up for weeks, cutting out anything nonessential from my grocery list — chocolate-covered pretzels, bananas, frozen fried rice.
But when I offered to chip in for our multi-course dinners or luxury spa day, they brushed me off.
I was grateful for their generosity, yet overcome with guilt. They had contributed so much to our time together. I didn’t want to be a freeloader, the friend who couldn’t hold up her end of the deal. How could I pay them back and show my appreciation?
At the end of the trip, my friend Andrea, 46, and I ate lunch in a diner in the Gold Coast. I made one last offer to Zelle her. In response, she said something that stuck with me.
“When I was in my 20s, people helped me,” she told me with an easy smile. “When you’re 40, just pay it forward by buying a younger woman dinner.”
Her wisdom helped me slowly release my anxiety
I mulled over her words on the plane home. I was surprised that her view of the situation differed so much from mine, and relieved she didn’t see me as taking advantage of her. Yet it was still hard to fully let go of the weight in my chest — the feeling of being indebted to someone’s kindness, of accepting a gift while knowing you can’t reciprocate.
Months later, my 64-year-old friend from my writer’s group visited from Florida. We went out for coffee, and I thought to myself, Okay, now this I can afford. But when I offered to cover or at least split it, she waved me off, saying, “My treat.”
I thought of Andrea’s words and told myself, She’s being nice. Don’t worry about it.
“Thank you,” I said, and meant it.
A while later, when another friend visited from Washington, she paid most of our checks at the bars and restaurants we visited. Though I felt a twinge of the usual panic at first, by our second day together, I was able to let it go. As we wandered through the Upper West Side, the tightness in my chest lifted, leaving only gratitude that she was here.
I do plan on paying it forward
Andrea was right, I realized. Helping each other was what friends did, and they clearly weren’t bothered by it. Sure, I wasn’t paying for lavish things or hosting people, but I shouldn’t let my own hangups affect our time together, which always produces some of my favorite memories.
Eventually, I’ll be able to do what they’ve done for me for another woman, who can then help someone else.
Instead of worrying, now I let my friends’ kindness bring us together and smile, knowing that every time I pay for a 20-something woman in the future, I’ll think of them.
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