Société Générale said that it had suffered a sharp drop in new accounts, a sign that potential customers were being scared away by the biggest rogue trader scandal in history. Six months after Jérôme Kerviel, a junior trader, was accused of losing almost €5 billion (£3.69 billion), France’s second-biggest bank said that it had registered 23,100 new French accounts in the second quarter, compared with 45,400 in the same period last year. The decline would appear to indicate waning confidence in the 144-year-old institution. SocGen has been widely criticised for missing repeated alerts about Mr Kerviel, who is accused of hiding his illegal deals in fictitious notes. The bank said that it had been misled by his devious behaviour.

However, there is no evidence that existing customers are deserting the bank, with the overall number of accounts in France rising by 2 per cent over the past 12 months. The news came a day after a second employee was placed under formal investigation in connection with the scandal.

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