Christophe Tummers has been appointed group chief data officer at Societe Generale as of 1 April 2024.

Data is central to Societe Generale’s strategy and is driving the evolution of financial services.

Tummers will oversee the global data office and report to Laura Mather, group chief operating officer.

He is a seasoned data specialist with nearly three decades of experience in the banking sector.

Tummers formerly served as a managing director at UBS, where he was the group chief data officer (Group CDO) and CDO for ESG.

Moreover, he was a longstanding board member of the EDM council and helped shape the financial industry’s effective data management standards.

Tummers is a dual citizen of Switzerland and Belgium who has lived and worked in a number of worldwide cities, including New York, Zurich, Singapore, and London.

Earlier last month, in an effort to streamline business processes and boost structural operational effectiveness, Societe Generale has disclosed plans to reorganise its head office in France, including 900 job cuts.

The organisation set a target to improve its cost/income ratio steadily and significantly, with the attainment of about €1.7bn ($1.8bn) in gross savings in 2026 compared with 2022, during the presentation of the group’s plan of action in September 2023.

Synergies from ongoing efforts, including the establishment of a new retail bank in France, the digitalisation of Komerční banka’s operations, or the integration of LeasePlan into Ayvens, are included in this figure.

Furthermore, it also includes further savings of over €700m from recently started projects in all group companies to simplify the organisation, improve purchasing procedures, or optimise information systems.

The goal is to streamline decision-making by removing hierarchical levels, grouping, and pooling specific tasks and functions, and resizing some teams in response to project or process reviews.