The SocGen trader, Jerome Kerviel, who has been blamed for losing the French Bank £3.7bn is to be held in jail while the losses are investigated. The Court has ruled that he should be detained because of the “necessities of the investigation” and the risk that he could flee the country.

Credit Agricole looks set to be lining up a bid for its troubled rival, Societe Generale. The move will see it go head to head with its rival BNP Paribas. Any bid by Agricole will be acceptable as it will keep SocGen in French hands. Indeed the political powers in France has indicated that any offer from a foreign player would not be welcome.

However a move by Agricole would come under scrutiny from the competition authority as Agricole already has a 30% market share and some 9,000 branches across France. One option mooted is that Agricole and BNP break up SocGen between them.

Jerome Kerviel, a 31 year old trader at Societe General, now has the dubious honour of being the daddy of all rogue traders, after he racked up £3.6bn of losses. This puts our own Nick Leeson in the shade, who brought down Barings by losing around £800m.

 The losses racked up as a result of trading futures in the Eurostoxx 50 as well as the German and UK indices. The deals amounted to over Euro 50 million, greater than the value of the company he worked for. Although some have suggested the losses would have been much smaller had his bosses not chosen to unwind the trades once they knew of them.

Questions being asked now focus on how this was allowed to happen again, folllowing Barings, given the stringent regulations in the Banking sector. Emphasis will surely turn from Mr Kerviel to his bosses, the compliance department, the back office, internal auditors, external auditors and the stock markets.  Mr Kerviel could well be the scapegoat at one of France’s top banks.