Wednesday, 30 June 2010
An interview with France's original deficit fighter, Thierry Breton
Tuesday, 15 June 2010
Lazard Banker Covets Le Monde, Political Heights
By Leila Abboud and Lionel Laurent
PARIS, June 15 (Reuters) - Lazard's top banker in France, Matthieu Pigasse, could soon take a joint controlling stake in elite newspaper Le Monde in a bid to expand his influence outside business and into the heart of French political life.
If successful, France's flagship daily would join a burgeoning media portfolio that includes Les Inrockuptibles, a cultural magazine that the punk rock-loving banker bought last year and is transforming into a general interest news weekly.
People who know Pigasse describe him as deeply charismatic, a hard worker who fires off 2 a.m. emails and listens to loud music at his office, and who has been ruthlessly cynical on his rise to power.
They say his move on Le Monde reflects the 42-year-old unmarried father of three's desire for respect and perhaps even a cabinet post were the Socialists to take power.
"He is someone hungry for the recognition of the establishment," said a former classmate. "He has had enormous success in business and is very wealthy but it is not enough. He now wants to become a press baron."
Wednesday, 9 June 2010
Rogue Trader Kerviel Branded "Liar" In Court
By Lionel Laurent and Thierry Leveque
PARIS | Wed Jun 9, 2010 3:23pm EDT
(Reuters) - Rogue trader Jerome Kerviel was branded a liar who took "inhuman" risks by a former boss on Wednesday during a trial over trading losses that brought French bank Societe Generale close to collapse.
The bank's former head of investment banking, Jean-Pierre Mustier, hit back at Kerviel's claims in court that SocGen tolerated unauthorized trading positions that eventually cost the bank 4.9 billion euros ($6.57 billion) to unwind in 2008.
"You lied to me all along," an animated Mustier told Kerviel in the cramped courtroom in the Palais de Justice, before telling judges Kerviel took "inhuman" risks that would be termed "criminal" in the United States.
Kerviel, 33, risks five years in jail and a 375,000-euro fine if found guilty of charges of breach of trust, computer abuse and forgery. His trial began on Tuesday amid a media frenzy over one of the most famous faces of the financial crisis in France.
The ex-trader has said his bosses encouraged him to take risks and his lawyer has painted him as a "pawn." SocGen says he acted alone and denies tacit complicity.
"We encouraged traders to know how to take risks. We did not encourage them to take risks," said Mustier, who quit SocGen last August amid an insider trading probe that also targeted non-executive director Robert Day.
(Read on...)