The new company was designed to channel investments in colonial ventures, primarily though not exclusively in French Indochina, which the Banque de l'Indochine was too cautious to undertake on its own.

Throughout the 1920s, it raised its capital on repeated occasions and invested in numerous companies, both in Metropolitan France and in Indochina, as well as in the New Hebrides, Djibouti, and Gabon.

It changed its name to SOFFO on 20 July 1949,[2] reflecting Giscard d'Estaing's pivot away from the French colonial empire to greater investment diversification including towards air travel and real estate.

[3] During its brief heyday in the 1920s, the SFFC commissioned two iconic buildings in Paris, both bordering the Square Louis-XVI [fr] across Boulevard Haussmann from the head office of the Banque de l'Indochine.

The first building at 51, rue d'Anjou, designed by architect Paul Fabre and completed in 1927, combines post-Haussmannian architectural codes with decorative details inspired by Southeast Asian art and especially Khmer sculpture, such as a seven-headed Nāga, Buddha's heads, and Khmer-style demons supporting balconies.

The second SFFC building at 34, rue Pasquier, was completed in 1929 on a design by architect Alex Fournier and his son Pierre in art deco style, and includes monumental bas-relief sculptures by Georges Saupique.

[6] Ironically, the SFFC was a prominent exponent at the Paris Colonial Exposition in 1931, just at the time of its near-bankruptcy and financial restructuring, with a pavilion designed by architect Albert James Furiet with sculpture by Georges Saupique.

[4] The SFFC first opened an agency in Saigon in 1923, and in 1926 moved it to a building erected for that purpose on Boulevard de la Somme, now Hàm Nghi in Ho Chi Minh City.

The Haiphong branch of the SFFC was designed by architects Georges-Henri Pingusson and Paul Furiet [fr], and completed in 1928 on Boulevard Bonnal, now Công viên Tố Hữu.