Societe Generale Chief still holds support

French Bank Societe Generale Chairman Daniel Bouton has won fresh support to keep his job. The bank is reeling from being hit by the world's biggest rogue trading scandal. The government is looking for ways to prevent such events from happening in the future.

French Bank Societe Generale Chairman Daniel Bouton has won  fresh support to keep his job.(Photo:peopledaily.com)

Scandal-hit French bank Societe Generale's board on Wednesday kept its faith with chairman Daniel Bouton. But it has left him off a new committee to take charge of the crisis over multi-billion dollar rogue trade loss.

The bank has been in turmoil since revealing over seven billion US Dollars of losses. It has blamed junior trader Jerome Kerviel of steeling computer codes and falsifying documents to place more than 50 billion euros in orders.

Earlier on Wednesday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy met with his Finance Minister Christine Lagarde and the rest of his cabinet to discuss the SocGen crisis.

The government has warned off predators eyeing a takeover of France's second-biggest listed bank.

Politicians are calling for sweeping changes in the wake of scandal. Some say the French government is facing questions over whether proper controls exist in the banking system.

Christine Lagarde, French Finance Minister said "The question to answer is what is the calendar of events. Secondly, why the controls which should have been set up and that maybe were put in place, did not work. Thirdly, what new controls have we to set up so that such incidents do not happen and then, it is not secondary for me, if 'yes' or 'no', did the bank respect all the rules about the stock exchange and the banking matters?"

Bank of France Governor Christian Noyer also said in the French Senate on Wednesday that the Bank had told Societe Generale less than a year ago to improve its market control systems for equity derivatives. Noyer also said the technique of Kerviel that caused the scandal, was "very sophisticated."

Late on Wednesday, police searched the flat of Jerome Kerviel's brother and removed some items in unmarked police vehicles.

Kerviel, a 31-year old junior trader, was placed under investigation for breach of trust and other misdeeds on Monday, but judges threw out a stronger accusation of attempted fraud. He has not been seen in public since then.