Daniel Bouton, CEO of French bank Societe Generale, reacts at a news conference at the bank's headquarters in La Defense, outside Paris, Jan. 24, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    PARIS, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- French bank Societe Generale's board on Wednesday kept Daniel Bouton as the bank's CEO, rebuffing French President Nicolas Sarkozy's demand for the bank's leaders to face up to their responsibilities for a trading fraud.

    The bank said that it was keeping its top people in place, asking Bouton and his deputy Philippe Citerne to stay on through the crisis.

    "The board is asking me to stay at the helm of the boat during this storm," Bouton said in his first television interview on the crisis, "I am a man of duty. I'm not going to jump overboard when the board is asking me to stay to do my duty."

    On reports that Societe Generale could be a takeover target, shares of the French bank closed up 4.3 percent Wednesday afternoon at 81.8 euros (121.15 U.S. dollars).

    The bank's spokesman Laura Schalk said there was no discussion at the board's Wednesday meeting of a friendly takeover offer for the bank.

    It would be "strictly no problem" for the bank to remain independent because it is still profitable, Bouton said.

    The bank has twice backed Bouton, who offered to resign as the trading crisis unfolded last week which cost the bank a record loss of 7 billion U.S. dollars in bad debts.

    Societe Generale also said that it had set up a special committee of independent directors to investigate the causes and sizes of the trading losses and look into whether the bank accurately communicated information about the scandal.

    But the head of the nation's central bank Christian Noyer also questioned Societe Generale's ignorance and the controls under Bouton's watch of the scandal.

    The bank's controls did not function like they should have and were not followed up appropriately, Noyer said.

    The bank has been in turmoil since the trading scandal was revealed which is blamed on rogue share trades by Jerome Kerviel, 31, who had worked at Societe Generale in Paris since 2000 and earned a salary and bonus of less than 100,000 euros (145,700 dollars).

    Kerviel has admitted having committed a certain number of acts to conceal reckless positions on the markets, according to prosecutor's office.

    He said he started taking non-authorized positions at the end of the year 2005, but these positions were not of the same magnitude like the ones he took in early 2008.

    He confirmed having acted alone in the acts under investigations, but said the practice of bypassing authorization by traders was not exceptional even if they concerned the volumes which he traded.

    According to the latest information, he is facing preliminary charges related to "breach of trust," "forgery and using forgeries. "

    Founded in 1864, Societe Generale, the country's second-largest bank, has to raise 5.5 billion euros (7.7 billion dollars) in emergency capital to shore up its ravaged balance sheet, something it says has already been underwritten by other banks.

    SocGen described the fraud as "exceptional in its size and nature," saying its full-year net profit would drop between 600 million euros (840 million dollars) and 800 million euros (1,120 million dollars) from 5. 22 billion euros (7 billion dollars) in 2006, due to the fraud and losses in U.S. subprime mortgages and monoline insurers.

    In addition to the fraud, the bank announced a further write-down of 2.05 billion euros (2.87 billion dollars) related to the credit crunch.

SocGen' chief asked to resign for colossal losses

    BEIJING, Jan. 30 (Xinhuanet) -- French bank Société Générale's chairman and co-chief executive Daniel Bouton and his closest lieutenants would be asked to step down to pay for the colossal losses with their jobs, media reported Wednesday.

    A day after President Nicolas Sarkozy said top executives at Société Générale should face “consequences” for the 4.82 billion euros (7.13 billion U.S. dollars) in losses linked to unauthorized trades by a single midlevel employee, finance minister Christine Lagarde described the bank as being in a “crisis,” needing to examine “whether they should change the captain.” Full story

Rogue trader blamed for $7-bln loss of SocGen

    PARIS, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- A junior trader is being blamed for a record loss of 7 billion U.S. dollars in bad debts in one of the biggest frauds in financial history, French bank Societe Generale said Thursday.

    The trader was identified as Jerome Kerviel, 31, who had worked at Societe Generale in Paris since 2000 and earned a salary and bonus of less than 100,000 euros (145,700 dollars), bank executives said. Full story

World's major financial frauds in 10 years

    BEIJING, Jan. 25 (Xinhuanet) -- Following are world's major financial frauds in 10 years:

    2006: Hedge fund Amaranth. Full story

French bank SocGen reveals $7 bln fraud

    PARIS, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- A 7-billion-U.S.-dollar fraud, the biggest in the history of finance, was revealed on Thursday by French bank Societe Generale.

    The fraud was detected at the French markets division last weekend. Full story