One of the largest losses in history from unauthorized securities trading involved a securities trader for the French bank, Societe Generale. The trader was able to circumvent internal controls and create more than $7 billion in trading losses in six months. The trader apparently escaped detection by using knowledge of the bank's internal control systems learned from a previous back-office monitoring job. Much of this monitoring involved the use of software to monitor trades. In addition, traders were usually kept to tight trading limits. Apparently, these controls failed in this case. Answer the following True or False questions about Societe Generale's internal controls. These will assist you in determining the weaknesses. 1. The loss could have been avoided with a number of internal controls.

The loss could have been avoided with a few internal controls. First, the separation of duties control was overcome by the trader’s knowledge of the monitoring software. This knowledge of the monitoring system allowed the trader to effectively hide trades without the laid down system knowing about it until it was effectively too late. This should be improved on, so as such trades can be discovered early.

Also, traders should be under managerial oversight. In this way, traders would be forced to stop trading after reaching a certain point. The Société General system allowed for indiscriminate numbers of trade and as such trades were able to exploit this weakness to the fullest.