A senior trader with BNP Paribas left the French bank last year after his US-based unit traded losses of over $10 million, the Financial Times reported late Thursday on its website. Lionel Crassier, US head of equities at the time, was ordered back from New York in March after he lost the bank between $10 million (7.7 million euros) and $25 million, according to sources cited by the newspaper. "We decided in March 2012 to transfer a member of staff from New York to Paris who demonstrated poor trading judgment," the bank told the FT. He subsequently left the bank.

PARIS (Reuters) - Societe Generale <SOGN.PA> Chief Executive Frederic Oudea's bonus rose 75 percent last year to 1.2 million euros ($1.56 million), even as France's No. 2 bank moved to cut costs and sell assets. The disclosure follows a rise in pay for Jean-Laurent Bonnafe, the head of larger rival BNP Paribas <BNPP.PA>, whose bonus rose more than 40 percent to 1.68 million euros in 2012 - his first full year as CEO of France's biggest listed bank.

By Katharina Bart and Sinead Cruise ZURICH/LONDON (Reuters) - UBS won broad shareholder backing for its strategy and pay policies on Thursday, dealing a blow to a surprise call from activist investor Knight Vinke Asset Management for the Swiss bank to hive off its investment bank. Knight Vinke's intervention, in an open letter to UBS management, staff and investors, was not taken up by other shareholders during hours of questioning at the bank's annual general meeting (AGM) on the outskirts of Zurich.

WASHINGTON - The new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission says she will review the agency's policy of letting companies and individuals settle charges without admitting or denying wrongdoing. Mary Jo White defended the policy at a budget hearing Tuesday on Capitol Hill, saying it has enabled the government to quickly return money to investors without a trial. But White, who became chairman in April, told the panel she is reviewing it with the agency's enforcement division to be certain.