Vale Valet

15 March 2018 By George Hay Follow @gfhay

Deputy CEO Didier Valet is leaving to preserve the French bank’s “general interests”. His role as CFO when SocGen staff submitted inaccurate interbank rates jarred with the bank’s efforts to minimise a U.S. fine. As peers have learned, not knowing is not an adequate defence.

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Société Générale said on March 14 its deputy chief executive in charge of investment banking activities, Didier Valet, was leaving the group over "a divergence of approaches regarding management of a specific legal matter".

The bank said Valet resigned in order to preserve the bank's "general interests". It said the legal matter predated Valet’s appointment as deputy CEO, a post he took up in Jan. 2017 according to his Linkedin profile.

The "divergence of approaches" related to investigations over the suspected rigging of the London interbank offered rate (Libor), a key benchmark interest rate, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

"We have now been working together for over 15 years. I would like to express all the respect and friendship I have for Didier," SocGen Chief Executive Frédéric Oudéa told staff in an email seen by Reuters.

SocGen shares were trading at 43.8 euros, down 2.9 percent, by 0955 on March 15.

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