Société Générale has fired over 200 staff from its investment banking arm in Italy, Spain and the UK following a strategic review of its operations initiated in the summer.

Kim Fennebresque, the global head of investment banking at Société Générale, said that the pan-European strategy adopted by many of the investment banks was flawed. "Société Générale's principal asset is its strength in France and we will exploit this powerbase to build up our position in Europe. For this reason there will be no redundancies in our Paris headquarters," he said.