Societe Generale chairman Daniel Bouton defended the bank's management in an interview published Saturday, saying the rogue trader scandal was not the fault of strategic errors.
"What happened at Societe Generale is certainly not a disaster that resulted from our strategy. It is more like an accidental fire which destroys a large factory at an industrial plant," Bouton told Le Figaro.
He rejected the idea the bank had actually sought to hide losses coming from somewhere else.
"That does not stand up, neither technically nor accounts-wise," he said.
He also denied speculation that the woes at the French banking giant led to the dramatic falls in financial markets at the start of the week which prompted the US Federal Reserve to announce an unprecedented rate cut.
"That is absurd! It was the Asian bourses which set the tone," he said.
"We completely respected the integrity (of the markets) by staying within the advised norms that say that no single institution can hold more than 10 percent of a given market," he added.
The French government demanded Friday a full accounting of how a rogue trader at Societe Generale managed to lose 7.15 billion dollars (4.9 billion euros), as it emerged he gambled on over 73 billion dollars -- more than the bank's current value.
Societe Generale said a single Paris trader, named by bank sources as 31-year-old Jerome Kerviel, amassed the losses, virtually wiping out the bank's 2007 profit and leaving it a potential takeover target.
Societe Generale announced at the same time as the fraud that it had lost about two billion dollars on its subprime exposure.
The Bank of France governor said Friday he was certain Societe Generale had not sought to disguise losses made in the subprime mortgage crisis.
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AFP
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