Pressure builds to fire French bank execs

PARIS, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- Political pressure is building for France's scandal-plagued Societe Generale bank to fire the bank's chairman and other top executives.

A rogue trader was discovered Jan. 18 to have lost $7.1 billion after conducting unauthorized trades for more than a year. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said bank executives should incur "consequences," The New York Times reported Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Finance Minister Christine Lagarde weighed in. The bank should decide, "whether they should change the captain," Lagarde said.

The situation is complicated because the apparent successor to Chairman and Chief Executive Daniel Bouton is Jean-Pierre Mustier, who was the head of the division where Jerome Kerviel, the rogue trader, worked.

Co-Chief Executive Philippe Citerne may also be asked to leave, the Times said.

The scandal widened with discovery that bank board member Robert Day sold $66.48 million worth of bank shares on the same day Kerviel's activities were revealed.

"No insider information was used in anyway," the bank and a spokesman for Day said in separate statements.