Societe Generale is not trying to build a fully-fledged investment bank in Asia, according to the French bank's corporate and investment banking chief for Asia Pacific, Hikaru Ogata – perhaps this is a wise move.

Last year, Societe Generale ranked 16th for mergers and acquisitions, 11th for equity capital markets, and seventh for debt capital markets in Europe, according to data from Dealogic. In Asia, the bank failed to make the top 20 in any of these league tables.