Signs of life in the United States housing market combined with JPMorgan’s higher bid for Bear Stearns to push global equity markets up sharply on Tuesday, and sent corporate debt demand soaring. The dollar remained weak, however, while eurozone government bond prices took a hefty hit as equities rose.
A Paris court on Tuesday freed Jerome Kerviel, the trader accused of causing record losses at French bank Société Générale, pending investigation, his lawyers said. Société Générale unveiled €4,9-billion (,64-billion) of losses in January in the biggest trading scandal in recent history.
Police arrested an employee from the trading room of Société Générale on Wednesday as part of their investigation into an alleged rogue trading scandal at the French bank, Europe 1 radio reported. In January, Société Générale unveiled €4,9-billion of losses which the bank blamed on rogue deals carried out by Jerome Kerviel
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/ 18 February 2008
Société Générale, at the centre of a huge trading scandal, began investigating trades executed by Jerome Kerviel months before his activities were exposed in January, a media report said on Monday. A senior executive of Fimat began investigating at the end of September deals executed by Fimat employee Moussa Bakir for Kerviel.
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/ 13 February 2008
Lawyers for Jerome Kerviel, the rogue trader blamed by French bank Société Générale for huge losses, lodged an appeal against his detention, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday. Kerviel placed a secret wrong-way bet on the share market that Société Générale blames for a -billion trading loss in the world’s biggest rogue trading scandal.
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/ 12 February 2008
Société Générale launched a discounted â,¬5,5-billion capital increase on Monday to prop up its finances and heal scars from the world’s biggest rogue trading scandal. The one-for-four rights issue at â,¬47,50 per share gives its existing shareholders a bigger-than-expected discount of 38,9% to Friday’s price.
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/ 5 February 2008
Société Générale was braced for fresh criticism from France’s top central banker on Tuesday as the man the bank blames for its record trading losses spoke out against his former employer. Jerome Kerviel (31) is under police investigation and said that he would not be turned into a ”scapegoat”.
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/ 30 January 2008
Fresh write-offs at big European and Japanese banks on Wednesday drove investors’ attention firmly back onto the credit crunch after days gazing at Société Générale’s stunning losses, which it blames on a junior trader. With the Federal Reserve expected to cut interest rates for the second week running, Swiss bank UBS illuminated the depth of the crisis.
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/ 28 January 2008
Asian and European stock markets fell sharply again on Monday as investors worried about possible recession and a forthcoming interest-rate call in the United States, analysts said. The Paris market fell amid anxiety and tension after an alleged -billion fraud was unearthed last week at French bank Société Générale.
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/ 26 January 2008
Jérôme Kerviel, a shy and introverted young city trader, lived on a tree-lined street in Neuilly-sur-Seine, the wealthy Paris suburb dubbed Sarkozyland in honour of its famous political son. Its yuppies live by Nicolas Sarkozy’s mantra ”work more to earn more”.
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/ 24 January 2008
French bank Société Générale (SocGen) disclosed one of the biggest alleged frauds in financial history on Thursday, adding to a wave of gloom surrounding world markets battered by credit market losses. SocGen, France’s second-biggest listed bank, said it had uncovered an ”exceptional fraud” by one of its traders. It said this would cost the group â,¬4,9-billion.