Bell Yard Press Coverage

From rogue trader to roguish male

By Ainsley Thomson
31 Jan 2008

Jerome Kerviel is turning into a cult figure despite, or because of, £3.7bn of losses, writes Ainsley Thomson

IN THE past week, Jerome Kerviel — the trader whose £3.7bn losses have rocked French bank Societe Generale — has achieved a long-held ambition.

In a matter of days he has travelled from desk-bound obscurity to stardom.

It was his drive for glory as an "exceptional" trader that he says led him to make the unauthorised trades and bet £37bn — more than the entire market value of his employer, Societe Generale — on the European equity market.

Now those trading skills have given the 31-year-old global fame, albeit of a kind he would probably never have strived for.

Kerviel, or Le Rogue Trader, has become a legendary figure, an unlikely hero revered by thousands. He may be facing charges for forgery, computer hacking and breach of trust — and been labelled a terrorist by his boss — but Kerviel also has thousands of fans, particularly in his native France.

T-shirts with the words "Jerome Kerviel’s girlfriend" and "Jerome Kerviel is a hero" are being sold and films and book deals are being discussed. On the social networking website Facebook more than 115 groups in both French and English have been formed in his honour and events are being planned.

The "Jerome Kerviel should be awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics" group alone has a whopping 2,061 members, while the numerous Jerome Kerviel profiles have hundreds of members each.

"Genius of Fraud!" declares Diana Murillo in one message, while Nader Saghir has the simple message "Courage! I support you ;-)".

So just why has Kerviel, the man accused of losing one tenth of France’s annual budget deficit, become such a cult figure?

Dr Alastair Ross, an honorary fellow at Strathclyde University, says it is partly because the crimes Kerviel has been accused of appear to be victimless.

"Because it is a white-collar crime he is not using the tools of a criminal. He doesn’t have a mask or a knife, he is sitting at a computer desk." Ross said.

"I think that helps to deflect the common attribution of blame and responsibility to the individual.

"Also, the sums of money involved are so extreme they tend to excite people. It may cost the taxpayer money, but it is very indirect."

Ross said people also tended to feel a certain glee when unpopular institutions such as banks lose money.

"When you find out some guy has sailed off into the sunset with billions of pounds from a bank it is an amusing tale," he said.

Some commentators have speculated that the French distrust of big finance is also behind Kerviel’s cult status.

Melanie Riley, from public relations specialists Bell Yard, said the hero-worship-ping of Kerviel was in part due to the vocal anti-capitalist sector in France.

She said: "It plays to their sense of injustice that an arrogant Parisian monied elite shares the proceeds of billions of euros only among their own.

"You can rely on the socialists being joined by equally jubilant voices from rival international banks ever keen to have a pop at the competition, coupled with the chance for a humorous dig at the French. I’m not sure we would have seen such an outpouring had either the bank or perpetrator been Belgian."

However, while Kerviel has built up a fan base among his compatriots, London traders CityA.M. spoke to yesterday had a considerably different view.

"He is an arse," said one. "Even with a multi-billion-pound trading book he still failed to make money."

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