Verdict date set for French bank chief

Jean-Claude Trichet: Stood trial with eight other defendants

France's top banker will discover on 18 June whether he has been found guilty of fraud - three weeks before he could take over as head of the European Central Bank.

A Paris court on Wednesday set the date for a verdict in the trial of Jean-Claude Trichet, governor of the Bank of France, who was charged with false accounting.

The announcement came at the end of six weeks of hearings into the collapse of French bank Credit Lyonnais in the early 1990s.

A guilty verdict would damage Mr Trichet's chances of taking over as ECB president, succeeding Wim Duisenberg who intends to resign on 9 July.

Mr Trichet, who stood trial with eight other defendants, has protested his innocence.

Bank rescue

The allegations date back to the early 1990s when, as a state-owned enterprise, Credit Lyonnais was carrying huge losses related largely to property investments.

A series of rescue packages was devised to save the bank, which was privatised in 1999.

But prosecutors allege that in 1992 and early 1993, Credit Lyonnais' accounts deliberately understated provisions set aside to cover risky investments.

This ensured the bank did not fall foul of European laws setting down minimum levels of reserves.

'Whistle blower'

Mr Trichet, who headed the French Treasury at the time, signed off the accounts.

He was accused of releasing false and misleading information and complicity in publishing inexact accounts.

But Mr Trichet's lawyers told the court that, far from trying to hide Credit Lyonnais' troubles, he had "sounded the alarm bell" to the French government.

Verdicts on the eight other defendants will also be delivered on 18 June.