Exclusive - SocGen mulls up to 700 job cuts: union sources

By Lionel Laurent and Matthias Blamont

PARIS (Reuters) - French bank Societe Generale may cut between 600 and 700 jobs as part of a broader cost-cutting drive in the face of stagnant growth in its home market, three union sources told Reuters on Friday.

SocGen management met with unions on Wednesday to discuss the proposals, which have not yet been finalised, the sources said.

The cuts, which will largely target back office staff in IT and compliance roles, will be partly offset by up to 100 new jobs created elsewhere, they added.

"There will be 600 to 700 job cuts at SocGen's central offices," one of the sources said. "Nothing is finalised but the proposals are fairly advanced."

SocGen employs 154,000 people worldwide, with 8,340 in its central administration department.

A SocGen spokeswoman said the bank would seek to avoid forced layoffs and that it was "premature" to discuss reorganisation plans when they had not been finalised.

She added that SocGen would favour internal redeployment and voluntary departures where there was the need to cut staff.

CGT union representative Michel Marchet said management had presented "several" different projects and that final numbers would not be revealed until the end of 2013.

"There was a meeting, management presented a number of proposals," said Marchet.

SocGen pledged in February to cut costs over the next three years with a reshuffled management team and promised to put in place a revamped structure, without giving numbers or targets.

(Editing by James Regan)