French bank to repay tax breaks given after Kerviel affair: Report

Paris: French tax authorities are seeking to recover 2.2 billion euros of tax breaks given to Societe Generale following massive losses due to "rogue trader" Jerome Kerviel`s recklessness, Les Echos newspaper said on Monday.

In September an appeals court in Versailles, west of Paris, decided that the French banking giant was mostly to blame for ex-trader Kerviel losing 4.9 billion euros ($5.3 billion) due to "woefully inadequate" internal checks.

The company had been awarded tax breaks by the French state but the government said in September it would review that in light of the ruling which held the bank overwhelmingly responsible.

Societe Generale had been awarded the tax breaks in 2009 and 2010 as part of a scheme aimed at protecting businesses facing huge losses or being victims of fraud.

Les Echos said the taxman had "launched a procedure to recover all or part of the tax break from which Societe Generale benefited".
Both the tax authorities and Societe Generale declined to comment on the report.

In September, the Versailles appeals court reduced a previous order for Kerviel to repay the 4.9 billion euro loss to Societe Generale to just one million euros.