Société Générale de Belgique

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The '''' (, ; often referred to in Belgium simply as "Société Générale" or SGB) was an investment bank and, subsequently, an industrial and financial conglomerate in Belgium between 1822 and 2003. It has been described as the world's first universal bank. The banking element was split in 1935 and became the ''Générale de Banque''. At its height in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Société Générale exercised significant control over large portions of the national economy of Belgium and the Belgian colonial empire.

The Société Générale was originally founded as an investment bank called the or () by William I of the Netherlands in 1822 when Belgium was under his rule within the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. After the Belgian Revolution in 1830, it was the new country's dominant financial institution and remained so even after the creation of the National Bank of Belgium in 1850. Its investments in the national economy contributed to the rapid development of the Industrial Revolution in the country and it soon emerged at the head of a major congolomerate of industrial and financial institutions active in Belgium and the Belgian Congo. The bank pioneered investments in non-listed equity.

The Société Générale went through multiple restructurings throughout the 20th century. In 1988, the Paris-based Suez Company took over the Société Générale through a competitive takeover bid. In 2003, Suez brought the Société Générale to an end by merging it with Tractebel, another of its subsidiaries. Provided by Wikipedia