The French finance minister today said the government should have been notified sooner about the multi-billion euro trading fraud at Société Générale, and also called for the creation of dedicated teams at the largest banks to identify cases of internal control breaches even when they have not had any negative effects.

Christine Lagarde, in a report presented today to French prime minister François Fillon, said the exceptional nature of the events at SG raised the question of whether the government should have been informed of the situation before January 23, three days after SG informed the Bank of France, its banking commission and the Autorité des Marchés Financiers.