English Universe

France’s second largest bank, Societe Generale, has filed a legal complaint against the trader accused of defrauding the bank which led to a loss of 4.9bn euros ($7.1bn). The bank says the trader acted alone.  Societe Generale wouldn’t confirm it, but several sources say the trader at the centre of the scandal is Jerome Kerviel, a 31-year-old who worked on the bank’s futures desk. He’s been suspended.

Societe Generale described his motives as “totally irrational” and admitted it didn’t know where the man was. A number of managers are also being dismissed and the bank was forced into an emergency share issue to offset the losses.

One of the executives who interviewed the trader said it would have been impossible for him to have acted with accomplices. But analysts are mystified as to how losses the bank itself described as “colossal” could have gone undetected: one said the market was suspicious that there was something more sinister at play.