SG fined for trader violations

ZURICH - French bank Societe Generale (SG) has been fined Sfr30,000 by Swiss exchange SWX for failing to monitor its traders properly and allowing unregistered employees to gain access to the exchange. SG must pay an additional Sfr10,000 more in costs to SWX. The Zurich-based exchange said SG had violated rules for the registration and deputisation of traders, allowing five traders unauthorised access to the exchange platform's systems.

SG's Paris auditors identified entries made on SWX in July 2006 with identification numbers of traders who were absent at that time. SWX said the French bank had already been reprimanded for a similar offence earlier in 2006 but failed to take action. The fine is a further reputational blow to SG after the January unravelling of junior Paris trader Jerome Kerviel's rogue trading scandal in January, which also went undetected and cost SG £3.7 billion.

Kerviel is not thought to have been involved in the unauthorised SWX trades.