The French banking giant Societe Generale, rocked by a massive rogue-trading scandal, have revealed their full year results. And they confirm, perhaps unsurprisingly, a record fourth-quarter loss.
The man they blame is the 31-year-old junior trader Jerome Kerviel, accused of losing 4.9 billion euros in highly risky stock market gambles.
The annual report shows that things were going really quite well for Societe Generale through the majority of the year
Until, that is, they had to absorb those crunching losses which came to light in January. They slashed the annual profit to just under a billion euros.
The man at the helm, executive chairman Daniel Bouton, says he is determined to keep the 144-year old Societe Generale independent, even though the rogue-trading scandal has made the bank a potential takeover target.
But France's second-biggest listed bank, just like much of the rest of the financial world, also had to writedown losses related to the global crisis in credit markets.
And the bank warned there could be more to come. The 2007 dividend was cut to 90 eurocents per share
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