French Bank Offers Details on Fraud

French Bank Offers Details on Fraud

ソシエテ・ジェネラル銀行不正取引事件の続報。銀行から不正取引の内容が公表されています。

銀行の公表したところによれば、問題のトレーダーは取引残高が与えられた権限を大幅に超過したため、その損失のリスクを最小にするような架空の相殺取引を銀行のコンピュータに入力していたとのことです（ヘッジ取引が架空なので実際にはヘッジされていなかったことになります）。取引は不正を避けるため、委託証拠金が不要なものを意図的に選んでいました。総額で５００億ユーロがEurostoxxなどにつぎ込まれましたが、これは銀行の時価総額を上回り、スロベキア、カタール、リビアの国内総生産に匹敵する金額です。

In a five-page statement Sunday, the bank said Kerviel used its money to build massive positions in futures contracts tied to the performance of baskets of stocks traded on exchanges in London, Paris, Frankfurt and other European markets.

Since those bets greatly exceeded the amount of capital he was allowed to put at risk, Kerviel entered fictitious and offsetting trades in Societe Generale's computer system that appeared to minimize the odds of big losses, the bank said. The trades were purposely chosen to avoid detection because they did not require cash contributions and were not subject to margin calls, which would require putting up more money if the fictitious bet soured, it said.

The bank said he plowed 30 billion euros ($44.1 billion) into the Eurostoxx index, another 18 billion euros ($26.5 billion) on the DAX in Germany and 2 billion euros ($2.9 billion) on the FTSE in London. The combined value of those positions, 50 billion euros ($73.5 billion), is far more than the bank's market capitalization of 35.9 billion euros ($52.6 billion), and close to the annual GDP of countries such as Slovakia, Qatar or Libya.

トレーダーは、不正の痕跡を隠すため、取引監視部門での経験を利用して、他人のコンピュータ・アクセスコードを盗用したり、文書を偽造したりしていたそうです。

Societe Generale said Kerviel misappropriated other people's computer access codes, falsified documents and employed other methods to cover his tracks -- helped by his previous years of experience when he worked in other offices at the bank that monitor traders.

銀行は２０日の日曜日には架空取引の全貌をつかんでいたようです。その日のうちにフランス中央銀行に対する通知を行い、取引の清算を可能な限り速やかかつ秘密裏に行うことが決定されました。

After first not providing a clear explanation, Kerviel eventually confirmed that he had entered fictitious trades, the bank said. It then took a bank team throughout the night and into Sunday, Jan. 20, to identify all the exposure. Societe Generale's chief executive, Daniel Bouton, notified the governor of the Bank of France that day, and a decision was made to unwind the trades as quickly and as quietly as possible.

すべての取引を清算するのに、水曜日までかかっています。

Societe Generale traders began unwinding Kerviel's losing bets at the beginning of European trading on Monday, just as Asian markets were in a free-fall and European shares were poised to plummet after a big drop in U.S. markets on the previous Friday. It took until Wednesday to finally close the books on Kerviel's adventures, the bank said.

French Bank Offers Details of Big Loss