SocGen Banking Chief Dies in Crash

One of France's top bankers has been killed in a car crash, it was announced yesterday.

Xavier Debonneuil, the 54-year-old head of Société Générale's corporate and investment banking business and a member of the bank's nine-strong executive committee died in an accident on Thursday in central France, the bank said.

His daughter also died as a result of the accident, according to a bank spokeswoman.

His wife and grandson were also travelling with Mr Debonneuil when the accident happened in the town of Romorantin, in Loir-et-Cher. Mrs Debonneuil is understood to have received serious injuries.

Mr Debonneuil, who was born in 1948, joined Société Générale in 1984 after working for the French national statistics office and the Bank of France.

He worked initially in the foreign exchange and money markets departments before being appointed deputy head of the capital markets division in 1995.

In 1998 he was appointed deputy head of the corporate and investment arm of the bank and a year later became head of the operation.

Mr Debonneuil led a drive to cut costs which saw his area of operations shed about 450 jobs.

"He presided over one of the more surprisingly aggressive and you might say innovative restructuring drives among the mid-sized wholesale banks in recent years," an unnamed London analyst told Reuters.

"Under him Société Générale's corporate and investment banking arm was not afraid of biting the bullet to create a more profitable structure."

No decision about his successor has yet been made.