Company: Societe Generale

State Street Chairman Jay Hooley has sent a not-so-subtle message to European banks: He's ready to buy their custody and trust operations.

French banks will likely feel the effects of both the victory of socialist Francois Hollande and political instability in Greece following elections there, with Credit Agricole in particular on investors' radars.

For Henri Proglio, outspoken chief executive of French utility EDF, a victory for Socialist Party candidate Francois Hollande in Sunday's presidential poll could prove particularly costly.

The chief executive of Societe Generale, Frederic Oudea, warned Socialist party French presidential candidate Francios Hollande against any move to break up the French banking system on Thursday as the financial institution announced first quarter earnings that declined from a year earlier.

French bank Societe Generale reported a 20.1 percent fall in net profit for the first quarter on Thursday, hit by the cost of selling assets and other one-off charges as it sought to strengthen its balance sheet amid a slowing economy.

MBIA hid its financial condition from the New York state insurance department in 2009 when it sought approval to restructure the company, according to Bank of America and two other banks challenging that restructuring.

A pick-up in trading revenue in the first quarter of 2012 disguises a chilling future for investment banks who need to drastically cull their business under new regulation.

Moody's warned on Thursday it may cut the credit ratings of 17 global and 114 European financial institutions in another sign that the impact of the euro zone government debt crisis is spreading throughout the global financial system.

A $95 million payment to Societe Generale shortly before Allen Stanford's firm collapsed is about to take center stage at the Texas financier's criminal trial, CNBC has learned.

European lenders, under pressure to shed assets and beef up their capital, will show the strains of volatile bond and stock markets and wilting investment banking income in fourth-quarter results in coming weeks.

Societe Generale CEO Frederic Ouday said there are "some positive signs" that things are improving within the European Union, albeit slowly.

Standard & Poor's downgraded the long-term credit ratings on some French banks, a move expected by markets and a result of its earlier cut in France's sovereign credit rating.

French financial-sector regulator ACP is preparing to tell the country's main banks to raise their writedowns on Greek debt to 70 percent or 75 percent from 60 percent, daily Le Monde reported on Wednesday.

French bank Societe Generale is forecasting a "significant" drop in 2012 investment-bank revenue compared with 2011, weighed by higher funding costs and efforts to slash its balance sheet, according to an internal memo obtained by Reuters on Monday.

Societe Generale plans to cut some 880 jobs at the French unit of its investment bank as part of a "voluntary departure plan," it said on Wednesday, as it and rivals struggle through a liquidity crisis.