FT: SocGen investigated dodgy trades since Sept
French bank Societe Generale, at the center of a huge trading scandal, began investigating trades executed by Jerome Kerviel months before his activities were exposed in January, the Financial Times reported.
The FT said it had learnt that a senior executive of Fimat, then a wholly owned subsidiary of SocGen, began investigating at the end of September deals executed by Fimat employee Moussa Bakir for Kerviel after being alerted to abnormally high volumes on his broking desk.
The Financial Times gave no source for the report. SocGen declined to comment.
The Fimat executive raised questions about commissions paid to Bakir on at least four cash equities trades for Kerviel.
But he uncovered nothing conclusive and the inquiry was not prioritized as he prepared for Fimat's merger with Calyon Financial that created Newedge, as the company is now known, the newspaper reported.
The investigation was still under way when Socgen discovered in January that Kerviel had separately built up unauthorized futures positions totalling 50 billion euros, trying to cover his tracks with faked hedges.
The revelation that there were concerns last autumn that could have led to a wider investigation will be embarrassing for SocGen, said the Financial Times. But it added that it was unclear whether the Fimat inquiry into cash equities trading would have led to an alert sooner within SocGen.
Agencies
(China Daily 02/19/2008 page17)
