Kosta Ouzas explains how banks use your deposits to fund massive trading bets. Bruno Ixel at J.P. Morgan lost $6 billion on synthetic credit derivatives; Jerome Kerviel at Societe Generale built a $50 billion unauthorized position that cost the bank €4.9 billion. Traders pocketed bonuses on wins while depositors absorbed the losses.
Topped $6 billion in a matter of months.
About $50 billion (notional).
Approximately €4.9 billion.
In 2025, Bruno Ixel.
Nicknamed the London Whale, was a trader in J.P. morgan's Chief Investment Office who quietly built massive synthetic credit derivative positions, bets so large.
They started distorting.
The very markets they traded in, the.
Capital ultimately traceable back.
To customer deposits and bank reserves. When the trades went.
Sour, the losses.
Topped 6 billion in a matter of months. Depositors.
Received the same.
Meager interest as.
Before, while the.
Bank'S traders remarkably still collected bonuses.
In 2008, Societe General's.
Jerome Kerviel, working in Paris at one of Europe's largest.
Banks, managed.
To amass a.
$50 billion.
Unauthorized position. These weren't small.
Side bets that were.
Massive directional wages on European equity futures.
When they imploded, the bank lost 4.9.
Billion euros.
Once again, savers saw no benefit when the trades were working but bore the.
Systemic risk when they failed.
