SocGen boss finally forced to stand down

The embattled boss of Société Générale finally fell on his sword yesterday after months of blunt hints from France's President Nicolas Sarkozy that he should resign. Daniel Bouton, 59, said he would leave his job as president next week.

M. Bouton, who headed SocGen for 12 years, has been struggling to survive since January last year when it emerged that a junior trader, Jérome Kerviel, had lost €4.9bn (£4.4bn) on unauthorised trades. Earlier this week, a French newspaper, Libération, claimed that SocGen had lost another €5bn in unwise trading by a subsidiary. The bank dismissed the report as "false".

Financial industry sources said this report may have contributed to M. Bouton's decision to resign but that he was already under renewed pressure after it emerged last month he would get a €730,000 annual pension.

M. Bouton, who had resigned as chief executive last year, said yesterday that he had made "mistakes" but had also contributed to SocGen's status as one of the "finest banks in the eurozone".

"I have become the target of incessant attacks which have ended up damaging a business to which I am deeply attached," he said. "I have decided to go now to protect the bank."

The board of SocGen will choose a new president next Wednesday, the day that M. Bouton resigns. The favourites are Jean-Martin Folz, former boss of Peugeot-Citroën and Frédéric Oudéa, the man who replaced M. Bouton as SocGen's chief executive.