French bank Societe Generale is investigating "anomalies" found in a client account overseen by one of its private bankers in Singapore, a Paris-based spokesman for the bank said on Thursday. SocGen, which has been looking to fight back after suffering record trading losses in 2008, declined to provide further details on the nature of these anomalies.
It added it discovered them in February and had immediately informed clients who might be affected. The spokesman said SocGen was doing everything to resolve the matter as soon as possible in the best interests of its clients. The Monetary Authority of Singapore, the city-state's central bank, added that SocGen had reported the matter to it.
SocGen has been battling back after falling victim to a 4.9 billion euro ($6.61 billion) rogue trading loss in January 2008, but it remains embroiled in several high-profile legal cases which have heaped negative publicity on the bank. The trial of its former trader Jerome Kerviel, blamed for the 2008 losses, is set for June, and SocGen is also caught up in a legal spat with one of its former star fund managers, Jeffrey Gundlach.
In February, the company reported a fourth quarter net profit of 221 million euros and said it was hoping for an improvement in its results for 2010. SocGen shares closed up 1.7 percent at 47.35 euros on Thursday, broadly in line with a 1.9 percent gain in the DJ Stoxx European bank index. The company has a current market capitalisation of around 35 billion euros.