Rogue trader to sue Société Générale over sacking!

I thought as much. It wasn't as if he was going to go down for something he thought he hadn't done. After all, French jails are not much better than they were in Napoleon's days.

The truth is these banks, Société Générale in particular, were not as clean as they try to make out. It always amuses me to see Angela Knight for the British Bankers Association popping up on our screens telling as all about mortgages, etc, as if her members had just left a monastery! She should know better! After all, she was Economic Secretary to the Treasury from 1995 to 1997, in John Major's government. I bet she would have said something if the Northern Rock fiasco had been in her time.

These bankers and their rich customers! All using our money. Wow! After watching Robert Peston's excellent expose (Super Rich: the Greed Game) into their legalised money laundering antics, one wonders how they sleep at nights. Probably quite well!

Jerome Kerviel is now suing SocGen. He and his lawyers are basing their case on two points. The first is that Mr Kerviel’s massive gambles on markets were actually in the black when his bosses stepped in. The losses only occurred when SocGen sought to unwind his gambles. The second relates to a legal technicality. French labour laws force employers to hold face-to-face meetings with employees to outline the case for terminating their work contract. But, as Mr Kerviel’s lawyers point out, the meeting is impossible because Mr Kerviel’s bail conditions forbid him from entering into contact with SocGen staff. So, a possible stuffing for the bank?

Whatever Kerviel did or didn't do, the bosses at these banks know only too well that they either conveniently didn't ask questions or they knew and joined in the gamble. What they have never done, it seems, until recently, is put into place "robust systems" to stop these malpractices. Why kill the goose, eh?

We need tighter regulation in the field of share trading and bank lending. It's time to call a halt on self-regulation. Sorry, Angela, but your BBA proposals don't wash!