I wasn't alone, says the SocGen rogue

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Kerviel, who ran up losses of e4.9 billion (£3.7 billion), said other traders at the French bank had broken regulations since 2005 by trading beyond their limits.

It also emerged that Eurex, the European derivatives exchange, warned Soc-Gen in November last year about his positions - when Kerviel was in the money. Prosecutor Jean-Claude Marin said: "Eurex alerted SociétéGénérale in November 2007 about the positions taken by Kerviel. Questioned by the bank, he produced a fake document to justify the risk cover."

Marin also revealed that Kerviel told investigators "there were other traders who had acted in a similar way". The investigation, however, found Kerviel had acted alone.

Bouton said today that he expected the losses run up by Kerviel to cost him his job eventually. He said his resignation, which the bank's board refused last week, "remains on the table".

"The board has asked me to stay on. Of course my resignation offer remains on the table," he said. "The board will decide to examine it when it wants."

SocGen declined to comment on the warnings from Eurex but the head of the investment banking division, Jean Pierre Mustier, admitted: "I cannot guarantee to you 100% that there was no complicity."

Mustier also admitted the bank had questioned Kerviel several times over his trading positions, which totalled e50 billion, before his enormous losses came to light.

"Our controls basically identified from time to time problems with this trader's portfolio," said Mustier, who claimed Kerviel shrugged them off as mistakes. "The trade was cancelled, there was no specific follow-up to do. From our understanding today, the number of mistakes was not higher than for any other trader so there was no reason to ring a bell."

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said there was no reason for SocGen to be forced into a merger with another bank. Meanwhile, Kerviel's lawyers accused SocGen of creating a "smokescreen" to divert attention from other losses, including e2 billion relating to subprime mortgages.