SocGen splits chairman and CEO jobs

By Yann Le Guernigou and Tim Hepher

PARIS (Reuters) - The head of Societe Generale, the French bank that recently survived the world's biggest rogue trading scandal, is relinquishing his job as chief executive but will stay on as chairman, SocGen said on Thursday.

Daniel Bouton will hand the top executive post to finance director Frederic Oudea, according to a statement from the bank, which remains beset by bid rumours in the wake of the affair.

Bouton had combined the chairman and CEO functions since 1997 and claimed a "clear mandate" to run Societe Generale after twice offering to resign over the 4.9 billion euros in speculative losses triggered by junior trader Jerome Kerviel.

The discovery of huge uncovered positions over a weekend in late January caused panic at France's second-biggest listed bank and sent it scrambling for emergency funds under the watchful eye of France's central bank, which criticised its controls.

Oudea, 44, was credited with helping to stabilise the bank, as it negotiated an emergency capital increase and unwound up to 50 billion euros of wrong-way bets in a falling market.

He was recently promoted to one of Societe Generale's deputy CEO positions on top of his finance director role.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy had called on Bouton to resign over the trading scandal, which angered French voters and sent shockwaves through the global banking system, already strained by subprime write-downs and collapsing credit markets.

But SocGen's board and major shareholders closed ranks behind Bouton as the bank's larger French rival BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA) openly pondered a bid before declaring a truce. Throughout, Bouton vowed to keep Societe Generale independent.