The recurring claim of French exceptionalism got a big boost early this month – at a price. Société Générale asserted that the only fair way to report its loss of € 4.9 billion, inflicted in January by junior trader Jérôme Kerviel, was as an event occurring in 2007.
Deep down in footnote 40 of SocGen’s massive annual report – to get the English version -- here – ou bien la VO Française ici – the bank discloses that Kerviel was in a net positive position of € 1.471 billion as of the end of 2007. His blow-up came on January 18, and the unwinding losses in the following days came to an eventual € 6.382 billion.
Over-riding the compelling guidance of the International Accounting Standards Board, that would book the effects of Kerviel’s mischief as they fell, would be rare enough under the UK’s high-level “true and fair view” rubric, much less under the American guidance of “present fairly in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.”
But that didn’t stop the French bank – supported by its national banking and securities market supervisors, as well as the two Big Four accounting firms -- Ernst & Young and Deloitte & Touche -- who share responsibility for its audit.
There is at least behavioral history on the French side: for years the European practice of booking the effect of deliberate errors in the year of discovery rather than in the year of perpetration has avoided the litigation hazard of the American requirement to re-state erroneous financial statements for prior years.
And on the recent and highly political side, the French have been vocal and steadfast in resisting the international standard for marking financial derivatives to market – the infamous IAS 39 – arguing the difficulty of valuation models other than historical cost but also conveniently retaining the flexibility of corporate management to time their recording of results to suit their discretion.
SocGen’s tone-deaf approach starts with its footnote description of Kerviel’s trading “plain vanilla” financial instruments – a colloquialism lacking both a usable French translation and a common understanding in the industry. Nor is there any positive spin to the term, since the more ordinary Kerviel’s scope and job description, presumably the more effective SocGen’s oversight and control of his desk should have been.
As I am told by the technical accountancy wonks, SocGen may – just barely – have a straight-faced justification, that its year-end balance sheet should reflect the € 4.9 billion body blow that struck only three weeks later.
Fair enough, on a casual first glance. But the argument for evading a well-known body of international standards, under an exception so obscure and elastic that prior examples are virtually unknown, fails on three grounds – technical, strategic and political.
First, on the technical side. Moving around Kerviel’s impact cannot lessen its prominence or significance. As a post-closing event it is comprehensively discussed for three pages in the SocGen report. A pro forma balance sheet presentation right there would do as much for disclosure as the roll-back could.
Even if it can be done, in other words, doesn’t mean that it should be.
Strategically, then, what’s the point? The known facts are so notorious that no one will be diverted or misled. Whether CEO Daniel Bouton survives – whether the bank itself survives – or how much the bank will ultimately pay out to the shareholders who are now at the courthouses with claims that the bank was running a “culture of risk” – none of these will be affected by the choice of years. So if SocGen can achieve no good for itself, what constructive purpose could there be in adopting a lightning-rod position?
And politically, the bank has succeeded only in setting back the global arguments for international accounting convergence, harmonization and improvement. If a “fair reporting” excuse can be made for Kerviel, there is no intellectually defensible line-drawing guidance by which investors can anticipate where the next similar exception will be invoked.
The size of the event can’t be a factor. A knock of € 4.9 billion is big, to be sure, but consistency in the reporting of small things is of little use if it’s the really worrisome big problems that qualify for revision and exception.
And with a French tradition to favor management’s opportunity to manage the timing of bad news, agreed by the supporting players, predictability of reporting at the global level is out the window.
So vive la difference – but let it be kept to matters of local impact only.
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