A. Basic Empirical Facts of the Problem Societe Generale (SG), a famous French investment bank, suffered an unprecedented loss of 4.9 billion euros in 2008 due to a trader, Jérôme Kerviel (JK). He was accused of making unauthorized trades and using the fake portfolio to hedge securities risks. This has provoked a heated debate on the ethical issues related to this scandal. Before proceeding to the investigation of ethical issues, the definition of business ethics will be examined in advance. According to Chris MacDonald (2010), a professor at Ryerson University in Toronto, business ethics is defined as a critical evaluation of how people and organizations should act in the business world, especially when their profit-seeking actions affect others. There are generally two ethical issues that should be concerned.1. Individual Level – Breach of Fiduciary DutyJK has breached the fiduciary duty he is supposed to undertake as a trader. Being a moral trader, JK should strive to pursue the best interests of clients. The act of deceiving customers using the counterfeit wallet allowed JK to gain huge bonuses while causing serious harm to customers. This move violated the above business ethics.2. At the Corporate Level – Blind Pursuit of Profit It is also unethical for SG to ignore JK's abnormally high trading volume until it becomes a serious problem. SG is also one of the trustees in managing clients' assets in their best interest. However, Kerviel revealed in his book that his practice was common among traders in SG, but senior management took no action to prohibit it (Kerviel, 2010). This shows that SG probably aimed to achieve the highest profits for shareholders while ignoring potential risks... middle of the paper... and for promotion. Therefore, companies may want to consider avoiding the transition of employees from compliance staff to merchants.3. At company level – Mandatory holidays for tradersThe third measure is to adopt a system of mandatory holidays for traders. Traders are required to take a few days off at least once a year (Goldfarb, Cass & Sanati, 2008). Other staff will temporarily take over the merchant's work. This offers the possibility of uncovering fraud as Kerviel refused to take a vacation during the scandal (Goldfarb, Cass & Sanati, 2008). By taking mandatory holidays, fraud can be discovered more easily even if traders can game the regulatory system. However, this may reduce the efficiency of businesses as it takes time for others to catch up. Despite this, it is worth doing because the consequences of loose internal control could cost up to 5 billion euros.