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Societe Generale Rogue Trader Named: 31-year-old banker Jerome Kerviel.

January 24, 2008 9:42 AM EST

Yesterday, one of France's largest banks, Societe Generale SA, was under heavy pressure in overseas trading on rumors the firm will announce a large write down due to exposure to US mortgage securities. Additionally, these rumors put pressure on other European banks: Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE: DB), UBS AG (NYSE: UBS), Barclays PLC (NYSE: BCS), Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS).

However, to the market's delight, the rumor of a large write down related to US mortgage securities proved untrue, and the real story came out today. It is reported that Jerome Kerviel, a 31-year old trader, who worked in Société Générale's Delta One products team in Paris, was responsible for a colossal loss of over $7 billion.

Because the US mortgage related rumor proved untrue, those other banks including Credit Suisse, Barclays, Deutsche and UBS are performing well today.

SocGen’s Delta One business includes ETFs, swaps, program trading, index and quantitative trading.