Natixis communication during the subprime crisis?
"
There are still a lot of things to say (in)
", estimated Wednesday the public prosecutor, who requested a fine of 7.5 million euros, the maximum amount, against the bank, judged for "
information false and misleading
”.
To read also: Natixis lawsuit: the civil parties criticize "the world of money" and claim more than 5 million euros
“In
view of the size and financial standing of a bank like Natixis, (...) it would be appropriate to condemn the bank to this fine of 7.5 million euros, which is ultimately a fairly symbolic amount.
“, Requested the deputy prosecutor Patrice Amar, on the sixth day of the trial of the banking establishment before the criminal court of Paris.
"
Of course, we are not in a case of accounting fraud, Natixis does not present deliberately false accounts
", tempered the deputy prosecutor.
But "
there is a presentation which does not allow us to anticipate what will happen next, because there are not enough details
", in particular on the nature of the bank's financing and commitments. , he said, considering that "
the offense of false and misleading information
" was characterized.
5 million euros claimed by the civil parties
Natixis, a subsidiary of the mutual banking group BPCE, has been on trial since March 29 for having underestimated, in its communication during the 2008 subprime crisis, its indirect exposure to it.
The bank was created and floated on the stock exchange at the end of 2006, at a price of just over 19 euros per share, a few months before the crisis in the United States broke out, which brought in its wake the rest of the financial sector. global.
In November 2007, in a statement on its results for the third quarter of the year, the French bank had indicated that the risks on subprimes, a type of mortgage loan distributed in the United States, were "
limited
".
Read also: More than ten years later, the subprime crisis is catching up with Natixis
The crisis will ultimately cost the young bank dearly, which will see its price collapse, from 19.55 euros when it was floated on the stock market at the end of 2006, to less than one euro per share in 2009. Between the requests for repairs to the as a loss of "
loss of opportunity
" and those for moral damage, the civil parties for their part claimed Tuesday more than 5 million euros in total from Natixis.