 In 1999 it entered into a merger agreement with rival bank Paribas, but this was scuppered by a competitor, the Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP).In 1998 Société Générale paid $540 million in cash to acquire Cowen & Company, a New York investment bank that specialized in the health care, technology and communications industries.Cowen was over by the Societe Generale Securities Corporation, the French bank's New York investment bank, and renamed the SG Cowen Securities Corporation.