Societe Generale chairman Daniel Bouton to step down

The bank’s board will elect a new chairman at its meeting on May 6, Mr Bouton said in an e-mailed statement today.

“The repeated attacks against me personally in France for the past 15 months affect me, but most of all, they risk harming the bank and its 163,000 employees,” he said.

Societe Generale, which was hit by €4.9bn trading losses stemming from unauthorized bets by Jerome Kerviel last year, denied an article in the French daily Liberation this week that said the bank may post a loss of as much as €10bn on risky investments by its alternative asset-management unit.

Liberation said the unit’s troubles came at the same time as SocGen was dealing with the losses amassed by Mr Kerviel, saying it highlighted an environment that encouraged risk-taking by managers close to Mr Bouton.

Le Figaro, which earlier today reported Mr Bouton’s resignation, said the executive will not receive any payoff from the bank. The current separation of the roles of chairman and chief executive officer at the bank seems to be “well adapted to the economic crisis,” Le Figaro quoted him as saying.

In his statement today, Mr Bouton noted that he had offered to resign soon after the “Kerviel fraud,” a move turned down by the board. He was replaced as chief executive officer by Frederic Oudea, while keeping his position as chairman.

“Today, the transition initiated a year ago with the appointment of Frederic Oudea as CEO comes to an end,” he added.