SocGen: Στα 50 δισ. ευρώ οι τοποθετήσεις του Γάλλου trader

SocGen: Στα 50 δισ. ευρώ οι τοποθετήσεις του Γάλλου trader

Στα 50 δισ. ευρώ ανέρχονται οι παράνομες τοποθετήσεις του Γάλλου διαπραγματευτή Ζερόμ Κερβιέλ, σύμφωνα με την Societe Generale. Ο Κερβιέλ, ο οποίος ανακρίνεται από τις γαλλικές αρχές σχετικά με την απάτη που διέπραξε σε βάρος της τράπεζας, φέρεται να εκμεταλλεύτηκε την πρακτική της SocGen να ελέγχει μόνο τις καθαρές τοποθετήσεις συναλλαγών και όχι τα ακαθάριστα ποσά που τοποθετούνταν (gross bets).
Oι «πραγματικές ζημίες» του γαλλικού τραπεζικού ομίλου από την υπόθεση εκτιμάται ότι ανέρχονται σε 4,82 δισ. ευρώ και είναι οι μεγαλύτερες που έχουν καταγραφεί ποτέ στον τραπεζικό κλάδο, σύμφωνα με σημερινές δηλώσεις του προέδρου της Societe Generale, Ντανιέλ Μπουτόν, στον ραδιοφωνικό σταθμό Europe 1.

Η απάτη που διαπράχθηκε επανέφερε στο προσκήνιο ανησυχίες σχετικά με τη διαχείριση κινδύνου στα μεγαλύτερα χρηματοπιστωτικά ιδρύματα του κόσμου, και ο Γάλλος πρόεδρος Νικολά Σαρκοζί απηύθυνε έκκληση για βελτίωση των εν λόγω πρακτικών.

REPORTER.GR

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Societe Generale Trader Built EU50 Billion Position

Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Societe Generale SA said trader Jerome Kerviel built up positions in European stock index futures of 50 billion euros ($73 billion) before the French bank discovered the trades and unwound them.

Kerviel, 31, who is being questioned by France's financial police for a third day, took advantage of the bank's practice of checking only net trading positions rather than gross bets to conceal his subterfuge with phony hedges, Paris-based Societe Generale said yesterday. The trading loss of 4.9 billion euros was the biggest in banking history.

``One of the first lessons to put in place is that we will do systematic controls on the nominal value, even if it doesn't show up as market risk,'' Jean-Pierre Mustier, chief executive officer of the Paris-based bank's corporate and investment bank, told reporters on a conference call yesterday.

The trading shortfall, more than four times the $1.4 billion of losses by Nick Leeson that brought down Barings Plc in 1995, has raised fresh doubts about risk management at the world's biggest financial institutions and prompted calls for improvement from French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

``It's time to introduce transparency and new rules in the international and French financial systems,'' Sarkozy said from India on Jan. 26.

Societe Generale fell 2.98 euros, or 4 percent, to 70.89 euros by 9:45 a.m. in Paris trading, bringing losses this year to 28 percent. The positions Kerviel amassed were larger than the company's market value, which now stands at 33 billion euros.

`Fault' in Controls

Kerviel, who the bank said hacked into computers and faked e-mails and documents to hide his trades, exploited other weaknesses in controls. He took only four days off last August and postponed a vacation at the end of the year, Societe Generale said. Banks often make trading staff take time off so any concealed positions will become evident in their absence.

``There was clearly a fault in the bank's control systems,'' said Jean Peyrelevade, a former CEO of Credit Lyonnais and a member of the board of Barings when Leeson's losses brought down the bank.

Mustier said Kerviel claimed to have personal reasons for not taking vacation.

Messages left at the offices of Christian Charriere- Bournazel, one of Kerviel's lawyers, were not immediately returned. There was no answer at the office of Elisabeth Meyer, another lawyer working on his case.

Kerviel had ``committed no dishonest act, did not siphon off a single cent, and did not profit in any way,'' Agence France- Presse cited the lawyers as saying yesterday. Societe Generale was creating a ``smokescreen'' to hide losses it had made elsewhere, the news agency quoted the lawyers as saying.

Stock Indexes

``That's laughable,'' said Societe Generale Chairman Daniel Bouton in an interview on Europe1 radio today. ``How can you imagine that we'd hide a hole with another hole? If we had a hole somewhere else, there's no way we could hide it.''

Kerviel worked on the Delta One trading desk, specializing in European stock market index futures. Mustier said his job was to arbitrage small price differences between contracts, not to take bets on the markets' direction.

Kerviel's positions, mostly on Germany's DAX Index and the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50, had losses of 1.4 billion euros when Societe Generale discovered the fraud on Jan. 18. The bank said it lost 3.5 billion euros more liquidating the positions as European markets fell.

Police Probe

Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, who will deliver a report this week to Prime Minister Francois Fillon on Societe Generale, said on France 2 television today that there's ``no reason to believe'' Kerviel acted with others. Her probe will focus on why the bank's internal checks failed and whether financial companies should be forced to impose more controls.

Societe Generale handed investigators information about Kerviel on Jan. 25 as part of the probe. The Paris police's financial brigade began questioning him the following day at their offices in the southeast of the city, Isabelle Montagne, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor, said in a phone interview.

French police will decide by this afternoon whether to charge or release Kerviel, Montagne said.

Police visited both Kerviel's apartment in the Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine and the bank's headquarters in the financial district of La Defense. Societe Generale said it voluntarily handed over documents.

Moral Code

The son of an ironworker and a hairdresser, Kerviel grew up in Pont l'Abbe, a town of 8,200 in Britanny, western France.

Tangi Hourmand, a 33-year-old childhood friend, said Kerviel had always wanted to go into finance. He described him as ``very intelligent,'' and ``a normal guy who liked to go out.''

Kerviel weighed nearly 100 kilos (220 pounds) when he took up judo, and cut his weight by practicing the sport until he hurt his knee, said Philippe Ohrant, Kerviel's judo instructor in Pont l'Abbe. He had attained the level of green belt.

``He was a pretty determined guy,'' Ohrant said. ``He was very keen and very respectful of the moral codes of the sport.'' Judo has eight moral codes: politeness, courage, sincerity, self- control, honor, modesty, friendship and respect.

Kerviel joined Societe Generale in 2000, working in the back office before moving to the trading floor in 2006. He had an annual salary and bonus of less than 100,000 euros.

Mustier said that moving from the back office ``was not the normal route to become a trader,'' and helped Kerviel evade controls. Mustier said that while he couldn't guarantee Kerviel acted alone, so far there were no signs of complicity.

`Harm' to the Bank

Kerviel was caught when he exceeded the recently changed counterparty risk limits on a trade, and the counterparty's e- mail confirming the transaction ``appeared suspect.''

He was questioned on Jan. 19, and after first trying to explain his way out he admitted the fake trades later that day, the bank said. It wasn't until the following afternoon that the extent of his positions was uncovered.

He never profited from his positions, which were rolled over before reaching maturity, the bank said. He concentrated on trades that didn't require margin calls or confirmation.

Societe Generale said in a statement that it's changing and improving its controls, without giving details.

``It's hard to not harm the bank,'' said Joseph Mason, a risk-management researcher and professor of finance at Drexel University in Philadelphia. ``You've just shown that you have holes in your operational controls and a rational customer needs to think, `What other holes are there?'''

BLOOMBERG