Court slashes damages to be paid by ex-trader Kerviel

A French appeals court has slashed the amount of damages due to be paid by rogue trader Jerome Kerviel to €1m ($1.12m; £860,00).

The sum is a tiny fraction of the €4.9bn he was originally ordered to pay to his ex-employer Societe Generale.

In 2010 Kerviel was sentenced to three years in prison for fraud, breach of trust and forgery over massive losses resulting from his trades.

Following the latest decision Kerviel called for a retrial.

"The struggle continues," he said. "I still believe I owe nothing to Societe Generale."

The appeals court said that Kerviel was "partially responsible for the loss".

He has always argued that his superiors at the bank knew what he was doing.

The court acknowledged that Societe Generale had shown "deficiencies" in its oversight, which was partly to blame for the loss.

Those who have watched the case say the latest decision is a sign of how much attitudes have changed.

"That the sum has now been reduced to just €1m is a sign of how the view of the French courts towards the affair has evolved over the years," said Hugh Schofield, BBC Paris correspondent.

"There is now an acknowledgement - more or less explicit - that the bank Societe Generale was also responsible for the losses incurred by its former trader, because of its lack of effective controls," he added.