Societe Generale SA, France’s second-largest bank, changed the head of its private-banking unit in Singapore, seven months after finding “anomalies” at a client account there.

Societe Generale named Olivier Gougeon as chief executive officer of private banking for South Asia, succeeding Pierre-F. Baer, the Paris-based bank said today. Gougeon, 44, moves from London to Singapore while Baer “will be taking up a new role” within the company, the company said.

 

The French company’s Singapore-based private-banking division found irregularities in February and “immediately” informed clients who might be affected and began an internal audit, the bank said in April. Societe Generale, which announced a record 4.9 billion-euro ($8.5 billion) trading loss in 2008, has been relying on private banking and consumer lending to rebuild profitability.

 

Societe Generale didn’t say why Baer moved from his Singapore CEO role, which he has held for three years. The CEO change has “no link” with the irregularities as “the specific responsibilities and the details of the anomalies are still being investigated,” a Paris-based spokesman said by telephone. Baer’s new job within Societe Generale isn’t yet known, he said.

 

Baer didn’t immediately return calls left at his office and mobile phone in Singapore.

Gougeon, who joined Societe Generale in 1992, had been global head of wealth planning and fiduciary services in London since 2007, leading a team of about 240 people to provide expertise to private-banking clients in 14 countries, according to today’s statement.

 

Societe Generale’s private-banking unit has made senior- management changes in recent months. In March it hired Benedikt Maissen from Barclays Plc to head its Southeast Asian operations and in May it appointed Vincent Magnenat as deputy CEO in charge of marketing in Singapore and South Asia.

 

Societe Generale repeated today that it intends to keep growing its private-banking business in Asia while “providing a high-quality service to meet business needs.”