The French government is to take sanctions against one of the country’s biggest savings banks, the Caisse d’Epargne (known as The Squirrel), after it suffered a $800 million loss on unauthorised equity derivatives trading.
The finance minister, Christine Lagarde, yesterday ordered an emergency audit of all French banks after the Caisse indicated that a team of four or five traders had exceeded their limits.
They were caught out in the panic surrounding last week’s stock market crash by what the bank called “routine control procedures”. The positions were immediately closed, the Caisse said. The traders had been disciplined.
Lagarde said she was “particularly frustrated and depressed” by this latest incident of unauthorised trading to hit French banks as the country’s banking commission began an investigation into the incident…
It is understood that an assistant of the rogue traders’ team leader has been dismissed. Others have been moved to different jobs.
Oh, the horror. The pain and embarrassment. Will they ever learn?
I’ll bet the money was squirelled away.
And yet, on this very blog, on this very page, a “crackpot” trader who made ~nine times the investment.
Let’s see…
An entire team of bankers (albeit french…) who manage to loose $800,000,000 dollars, or;
A crackpot trader who makes $87,000,000.
Bankers 0
Crackpot 1
Too bad the fat cats don’t suffer the most.
Squirrel?
OH, nuts.
J/P=?