Yesterday Société Générale chairman Daniel Bouton said he will resign from the French banking behemoth, saying repeated attacks on him were a threat to the bank’s health. Bouton stated “Like any manager, I have certainly made mistakes, but the strategy adopted by Société Générale has made it one of the finest banks in the euro zone. The repeated attacks against me personally in France for the past fifteen months affect me, but most of all, they risk harming the bank and its 163,000 employees,” Bouton added, saying it was “better for me to withdraw, proud of having led a wonderful company.”
Bouton was Société Générale’s chief executive in January 2008 when the bank announced one of the world’s largest trading scandals masterminded by trader Jerome Kerviel, which caused a massive loss. He stepped down as CEO last May but had remained as chairman. President Nicolas Sarkozy for top executives to face the “consequences” of the huge losses.
Kerviel maintains that his superiors were aware of his risky transactions but looked the other way while he was earning big money for the bank, intervening only when he started to lose. The bank, however, insists that it was not aware of Kerviel’s activities.
Bouton was the subject of public outrage more recently, when the bank disclosed that he will benefit from a pension of euro730,000 (US$965,000) per year when he retires. The issue of executive compensation has become a big issue in France after a series of revelations that managers at loss-making firms were pocketing bonuses.
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