Société Générale Takes 2B-Euro Mortgage Hit

The Paris-based Société Générale is taking a 2 billion euro ($2.9 billion) U.S. mortgage-related writedown and an even larger 4.9 billion euro ($7.2 billion) loss linked to fraud by a rogue trader. As a result, Standard & Poor's has placed the French bank's long-term counterparty ratings, as well as those of its core subsidiaries, on CreditWatch with negative implications. The New York-based rating agency said the CreditWatch placement was primarily due to the fraud, but it also indicated that it will be monitoring SocGen's mortgage-related exposures.