The French press has reacted with shock at the massive fraud uncovered at Société Générale, but a number of commentators are sceptical about the bank's version of events.
Le Figaro suggests rogue trader Jerome Kerviel could be a scapegoat. The paper has interviewed Elie Cohen, an economics professor at the famous Sciences Politiques university who says SocGen's explanation is "hard to believe".
It all "seems a bit far fetched that during a whole year, one can hide such a huge loss," he told the paper.
"The feeling in the trading rooms is that it is not possible that just one individual was able to do this. The Société Générale could have emphasised the theme of fraud to help digest several bad trading operations."
Liberation, the leftwing French daily, says senior management at SocGen must be brought to account.
It describes Kerviel as a "fragile man with an extraordinary talent for deceit". He is the French version of a "crazy trader" following in the steps of Nick Leeson, and has blown the equivalent of the annual budget for the minimum wage.
"Apart from that, no need to worry," the paper says in a hard-hitting editorial.
"That's what minister Christine Lagarde said, and also Christian Noyer, the governor of the Bank of France.
"It is an isolated incident, with no relation to the current financial turmoil. As for Daniel Bouton, the chief executive of the Société Générale, he has kept his position, but has made the symbolic move of giving up six months of salary – apparently to calm down his shareholders and employees."
The paper continues: "With this new massive blow in the midst of the sub-prime crisis, it is hard not to ask a few delicate questions.
"Who is responsible for the craze for risk that has spread in the markets, if it is not the banks and their chiefs? Who is responsible for the failure to control a French trader, if it is not the banking commission, presided over by Christian Noyer?
"Of course, calls for new finance regulation by Christine Lagarde are welcome, but they will be of no use if no sanctions will be considered at the top."
Les Echos, the daily financial newspaper, says that "if the numerous questions that have not yet been answered about the fraud are not rapidly answered, it could undermine the credibility of the entire banking system".
The press conference held yesterday by the Bank of France's Noyer, was unprecedented, the paper said, and designed to avoid a Northern Rock-style panic among SocGen's 9 million retail customers.
The paper quotes Noyer telling customers they can be reassured. They have in front of them, he says, "a bank that is even more solid than it was last week".
He added: "There is therefore no problem of confidence, let us not exaggerate this story. One must not mix this up with the sub-prime crisis."
Le Parisien, under an editorial headlined "The Man Who Blew Up The Bank" says that a "monumental computing mess-up" might be behind the fraud and suggests that more employees could be involved.
La Tribune, another financial daily, asks "why was so much time needed to discover the extent of the damages?"
L'Humanité, a leftwing daily newspaper, says there is "something deeply rotten in the realm of global finance".
A number of regional commentators are even more sceptical about the bank's explanation. Le Telegramme noted that "everything has happened as if the six days between the discovery of the internal fraud and Thursday's revelation have been used to put in place a plausible scenario".
Even more direct, Nice-Matin asks if "the bank is not looking to hide its disastrous operations on stock market derivatives which collapsed with the sudden slump of the financial markets in recent months".
L'Alsace asks whether "the bank has found a very convenient minion to hide part of its sub-prime losses".
Others, though, point the finger at politicians. Sud-Ouest describes "politicians that force themselves to look like they are up to the challenge, first by reassuring people, then to call for more transparency, more controls. This fools no-one."
For La Charente Libre, the "tragic thing" is that "our politicians might be explaining that they are closely following the case, but nothing happens".
The Dauphiné Libéré, meanwhile, calls for "the competent authorities to prove that this is just a problem for the Société Générale. And not an overall social phenomenon."
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