Societe Générale, the bank rocked by the Jerome Kerviel rogue trading scandal, today posted a surprise loss after taking a massive hit on US property investments.

The Paris-based bank reported first-quarter losses of €278 million (£244 million) against a profit of €1.1 billion 12 months earlier. Analysts were hoping for a profit of €332 million.

Chief executive Frédéric Oudéa, who was named chairman yesterday after Daniel Bouton quit following the Kerviel scandal, blamed the downturn in the US property market for €1.5 billion in new writedowns in its investment banking division.

The losses compared badly with profits of €1.56 billion unveiled yesterday by French rival BNP Paribas.

“SocGen is lagging behind,” said Mamoun Tazi, an analyst at MF Global Securities. “At risk management, they are not as good as BNP.”

Oudéa said the global recession will continue to weigh on the performance of banks around the world this year and said: “Société Générale will not be immune from this trend.”

It was in stark contrast to comments made in February when Oudéa said: “Overall when I see how we entered 2009, I think we are in good shape in relative terms compared with our peers.”

The investment bank made first-quarter losses of ¤414 million compared with a ¤141 million profit a year ago.