Daniel Bouton will step down as chief executive of Société Générale in May, although he'll stay on as chairman, the French bank announced Thursday. Bouton, 58, is taking the fall for the bank's failings in the rogue trading affair involving Jérôme Kerviel, a junior stock arbitrager who ultimately cost the bank $7.5 billion in net losses.
In the early afternoon of Sunday, Jan. 20, Daniel Bouton, the chairman and chief executive of the huge French bank Société Générale, was in his 35th-floor office preparing for a board meeting that evening when one of his lieutenants, Jean-Pierre Mustier, came to break some calamitous news. Mustier, Société Générale's head of investment banking, had already alerted him about a 31-year-old junior trader in the stock arbitrage department named Jérôme Kerviel who had been caught making big unhedged bets on European stock futures.
A lawyer for the French trader accused of massive fraud at Societe Generale said bank bosses "condoned" his client's trades, contradicting bank statements that the trader acted on his own.
The individual pictured on the cover of the February 18, 2008 issue of FORTUNE magazine and his employer have no connection to Societe Generale, and Fortune did not mean to imply any connection, or to comment in any way on his or his employer's professional abilities.
Two weeks after the scandal first broke, we still don't know exactly how Jérôme Kerviel, a lowly 31-year-old trader on the arbitrage desk at French bank Société Générale managed to build a $72 billion position in European stock index futures.
The board of troubled French banking giant Societe Generale said Wednesday that chairman and chief executive Daniel Bouton will stay on despite massive trading losses of more than $7.2 billion.
The board of troubled French banking giant Societe Generale said Wednesday that Chairman and Chief Executive Daniel Bouton will stay on despite massive trading losses of more than $7.2 billion.
Concerns over the trading carried out by Jerome Kerviel, the trader accused of causing a $7.2 billion loss at Societe Generale, were raised as early as last November, a British newspaper reported Tuesday.
The French prosecutor who sought charges against trader Jerome Kerviel for a $7.2 billion loss at Societe Generale said Tuesday he plans to appeal a judge's decision to throw out a charge of fraud.
Daniel Bouton will step down as chief executive of Société Générale in May, although he'll stay on as chairman, the French bank announced Thursday. Bouton, 58, is taking the fall for the bank's failings in the rogue trading affair involving Jérôme Kerviel, a junior stock arbitrager who ultimately cost the bank $7.5 billion in net losses.
In the early afternoon of Sunday, Jan. 20, Daniel Bouton, the chairman and chief executive of the huge French bank Société Générale, was in his 35th-floor office preparing for a board meeting that evening when one of his lieutenants, Jean-Pierre Mustier, came to break some calamitous news. Mustier, Société Générale's head of investment banking, had already alerted him about a 31-year-old junior trader in the stock arbitrage department named Jérôme Kerviel who had been caught making big unhedged bets on European stock futures.
A lawyer for the French trader accused of massive fraud at Societe Generale said bank bosses "condoned" his client's trades, contradicting bank statements that the trader acted on his own.
The individual pictured on the cover of the February 18, 2008 issue of FORTUNE magazine and his employer have no connection to Societe Generale, and Fortune did not mean to imply any connection, or to comment in any way on his or his employer's professional abilities.
Two weeks after the scandal first broke, we still don't know exactly how Jérôme Kerviel, a lowly 31-year-old trader on the arbitrage desk at French bank Société Générale managed to build a $72 billion position in European stock index futures.
The board of troubled French banking giant Societe Generale said Wednesday that chairman and chief executive Daniel Bouton will stay on despite massive trading losses of more than $7.2 billion.
The board of troubled French banking giant Societe Generale said Wednesday that Chairman and Chief Executive Daniel Bouton will stay on despite massive trading losses of more than $7.2 billion.
Concerns over the trading carried out by Jerome Kerviel, the trader accused of causing a $7.2 billion loss at Societe Generale, were raised as early as last November, a British newspaper reported Tuesday.
The French prosecutor who sought charges against trader Jerome Kerviel for a $7.2 billion loss at Societe Generale said Tuesday he plans to appeal a judge's decision to throw out a charge of fraud.
Alleged multibillion-dollar rogue trader Jerome Kerviel was freed Monday after French authorities preliminarily charged him with abuse of confidence and illegal access to computers.
French prosecutors said Monday they plan to pursue four charges, including fraud, against the trader who allegedly carried out a $7.2 billion fraud at French banking giant Societe Generale.
A significant number of the bankers, regulators, credit agencies and other key players whose errors, omissions and greed contributed to the current financial crisis are at the World Economic Forum in Davos - and they all seem to be singing from the same hymn sheet.
U.S. stock futures slipped early Thursday after a disappointing outlook from eBay cast a cloud over the tech sector and investors awaited another batch of corporate earnings.
European shares suffered their biggest one-day percentage decline in more than four years Friday, fueled by fears of a liquidity crisis stemming from problems in the U.S. subprime mortgage market.
Société Générale ranks no. 67 on FORTUNE's Global 500 this year, with $64.4 billion in revenues, up 98.8% from the previous year. The Paris, France-based company was ranked no. 152 on the 2005 list. Its 2005 profits were $5.5 billion, up 42.1% from a year earlier. 2005 was a banner year for most Global 500 companies.
Shares of German industrial conglomerate Siemens gained ground on Thursday as orders climbed 31%, offsetting potential disappointment from a 19% income slide.
So much for a Santa Claus rally -- U.S. stock markets are poised for another sour session Friday, putting the Dow industrials at risk of a losing year in 2005's final session.
Treasury prices climbed and the dollar hovered near eight-month lows against the euro Friday afternoon as traders worried about how soaring oil prices will affect the U.S. economy.
Economists are again reining in estimates for hiring and economic growth, saying companies are cautious amid rising oil prices, a newspaper reported Thursday.
Bonds ticked higher and the dollar was mixed against the euro and the yen following the release of July's personal income report that was weaker than analysts had expected.
In France, a business deal used to mean an excuse for old classmates from the Ecole Nationale d'Administration (the training ground for elite bureaucrats and CEOs) to get together over a four-cours...
Having just urged you to play it safe in most of your portfolio, we now propose something radical for that small corner where you keep your mad money: Asian stocks.
Lists of the largest dealers in swaps or other species of derivatives are common. But to FORTUNE's knowledge, this is the first that totals all the derivatives contracts of each dealer and presents...
A SPECTER IS haunting Europe -- the specter of grinding global competition. In their first act of exorcism in the early 1980s, European companies restructured by shedding weak units, cutting costs,...
FROM EUROPE to the Orient, top managers are strikingly underpaid compared with their U.S. counterparts. Chief executives of 24 U.S. companies, including Du Pont, Sara Lee, Toys ''R'' Us, and Lotus ...
Looking to get away from it all? Club Med plans something for the exotic vacation crowd -- a ''village'' that floats. Billing it as the world's largest sailboat, the hotel chain has a $100 million,...
While most Europeans have barely warmed to the notion of hostile takeovers inside their own countries, Carlo de Benedetti has turned up the heat. The hero of Olivetti is vying to take charge of Soc...
No one can know what recent stock market volatility portends, but three daily drops in two weeks of more than 90 points in the Dow Jones industrial average, including a record 108-point plunge, hav...
Lately the French have seemed determined to be as well known for their electronic technology as for their cuisine. A committee representing French banks has decided to provide 12 million of the cou...
The page you requested cannot be found. The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.
Please try the following:
• If you typed the page address in the Address bar, make sure that it is spelled correctly.
• Open the www.cnn.com home page and look for links to the information you want.
• Use the navigation bar above to find the link you are looking for.
• Click the Back button to try another link.
• Enter a term in the search form below to look for information on CNN sites or the Internet.
Video
