French finance ministerChristine
Lagardehas recommended that further
investigation into IT security atSociete Generale(SocGen) should be
carried out in her report to parliament.
Lagarde put together the report into the
activity of rogue trader Jerome Kerviel, which led to losses of
£3.6bn.
With a more in-depth banking commission investigation to be
carried out, she has recommended that information system security
and access code protection are focused on.
Bob McDowall, analyst at TowerGroup, said the process of
analysing systems will shed light on a lot of Kerviel's activities.
"It will evidence what has been the subject of conjecture and
speculation."
He said it will reveal how the systems are not intrinsically at
fault but how they are used.
"It may make banks look at biometrics," McDowall said.
The report also outlined the problems that can be caused if the
back-office and the traders are in close contact.
Kerviel, who is said to be computer literate, spent time working
in the back-office before becoming a trader, which gave him an
understanding of computer systems and controls.