A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given.

The term General is used in two ways: as the generic title for all grades of general officer; and as a specific rank. Since the late twentieth century, the rank of General is usually the highest active rank of a military not at war.

All general officer ranks

The various grades of general officer are at the top of the rank structure. Lower-ranking officers are known as field officers or field-grade officers, and below them are company-grade officers. All officers who commanded more than a single regiment came to be known as "general officers". The word "general" is used in its ordinary sense in English (and other languages) as relating to larger, general, military units, rather than smaller units in particular.

Common systems

There are two common systems of general ranks.

Variations of one form, the old European system, were once used throughout Europe. It is used in the United Kingdom (although it did not originate there), from which it eventually spread to the Commonwealth and the United States of America. The General Officer ranks are named by prefixing General, as an adjective, with field officer ranks, although in some countries the highest general officers are titled Field Marshal or Marshal.

The other is derived from the French Revolution, where generals' ranks are named according to the unit they (theoretically) command.

Old European system {| style="border:1px solid #8888aa; background-color:#f7f8ff; padding:5px; font-size:95%; margin: 0px 12px 12px 0px;" |align="center"| Field Marshal or General Field Marshal |- |align="center"| ''Colonel General'' |- |align="center"| General or Captain General |- |align="center"| Lieutenant General |- |align="center"| Sergeant Major General or Major General |- |align="center"| ''Brigadier (General)'' |}

The system used either a ''brigadier general'' rank, or a ''colonel general'' rank (i.e. exclude one of the italicised ranks.)

The rank of field marshal was used by some countries as the highest rank, while in other countries it was used as a divisional or brigade rank. Many countries (notably pre-revolutionary France and eventually much of Latin America) actually used two brigade command ranks, which is why some countries now use two stars as their brigade general insignia. (Mexico and Argentina still use two brigade command ranks.)

In some nations (particularly in the Commonwealth), the equivalent to Brigadier General is Brigadier, which is not always considered by these armies to be a general officer rank, although it is always treated as equivalent to the rank of Brigadier General for comparative purposes. Unlike other general officers, the brigadier general rank is not derived from a ''field'' rank of brigadier.

The rank of ''major general'' is a shorter form of ''sergeant major general'', and is lower than lieutenant general as a lieutenant outranks a sergeant major, although outranked by a major.

French (Revolutionary) system {| style="border:1px solid #8888aa; background-color:#f7f8ff; padding:5px; font-size:95%; margin: 0px 12px 12px 0px;" |align="center"| Marshal |- |align="center"| Army General |- |align="center"| Corps General |- |align="center"| Divisional General |- |align="center"| Brigade General |} More information about this system can be found on the page: Général.

Other variations

Other nomenclatures for general officers include the titles and ranks:

Adjutant General

Commandant-General

Inspector General

Captain General

General-in-Chief

General of the Army (which is distinct from the title Army General)

General of the Air Force (USA only)

General of the Armies of the United States (of America), a title created for General John J. Pershing, and subsequently granted posthumously to George Washington.

General Admiral (German Navy)

Air General and Aviation General (Chilean Air Force; roughly equivalent to Air Chief Marshal and Air Vice-Marshal respectively)

Wing General and Group General (Mexican Air Force; roughly equivalent to Air Commodore and Acting Air Commodore respectively)

Lieutenant-Colonel General (A Serb rank immediately inferior to Colonel General, and roughly equivalent to Commonwealth/US Major General)

Director General (a common administrative term sometimes used as an appointment in military services)

Director General of National Defence (most senior rank in the Mexican Armed Forces)

Director of Intelligence Bureau (senior most 4 star Indian Police Service post in India)

Controller General (general officer rank in the French National Police)

Prefect General (the most senior rank of the Argentine Naval Prefecture)

Master-General of the Ordnance

In addition to militarily educated generals, there are also generals in medicine and engineering. The rank of most senior chaplain, Chaplain General, is also considered to be a general officer rank.

The specific General rank

In the Old European system, a General, without prefix or suffix (and sometimes referred to informally as a "full general"), is usually the most senior type of general, above Lieutenant General and directly below Field Marshal. Usually it is the most senior peace-time rank, with more senior ranks (for example, Field Marshal) being used only in wartime, or as honorary titles.

In some armies, however, the rank of Captain General, General of the Army, Army General or Colonel General occupied or occupies this position. Depending on circumstances and the army in question, these ranks may be considered to be equivalent to a full General or to a Field Marshal.

The rank of General came about as a "Captain-General", the captain of an army in general (i.e., the whole army). The rank of Captain-General began appearing around the time of the organization of professional armies in the 17th century. In most countries "Captain-General" contracted to just "General".

General ranks by country

The following articles deal with the rank of General, or its equivalent, as it is or was employed in the militaries of those countries.

General (Australia)

General (Canada)

Shang Jiang (China) - People's Republic of China (PRC) and Republic of China (ROC/Taiwan)

Kenraali (Finland)

Kindral (Estonia)

Général (France)

General (Germany)

Obergruppenführer (Nazi Germany, SS rank)

Strategos (Greece)

Aluf (Israel)

Generale (Italy)

Daejang (Korea - DPRK and ROK)

General (Mexico)

Generał (Poland)

Army General (Philippines)

Army General (Russia)

General (Sri Lanka)

General (Sweden)

General (Switzerland)

General (United Kingdom)

General (United States)

Army generals' insignia

Air force generals' insignia

Generals' insignia of disbanded armies

Air Force and Navy equivalents

Some countries (such as the United States) use the General Officer ranks for both the army and the air force; others only use the General Officer ranks for the army, while in the air force they use Air Officers as the equivalent of General Officers. They use the air force rank of Air Chief Marshal as the equivalent of the specific army rank of General. This latter group includes the British Royal Air Force and those based on it (e.g., India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Nigeria, etc.).

In most navies, Flag Officers are the equivalent of General Officers, and the naval rank of Admiral is equivalent to the specific army rank of General. A noteworthy historical exception was the Cromwellian naval rank ''General at sea''. In recent years in the American service there is a tendency to use ''Flag Officer'' and ''Flag Rank'' to refer to generals and admirals of the services collectively.

See also

Général

Generalissimo

List of comparative military ranks

List of Roman generals

Shogun

References

External links

Generals of World War II

Schema-root.org: US Generals News feeds for US Generals in the news

Marines.mil: General Officer Biographies Biographies of US Marine Corps General Officers

Bios & Information on Generals of Western History Information on 10 Generals who influenced Western History

Category:Generals Category:Military ranks

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Coordinates	51°43′37″N5°26′2″N
Name	Jérôme Kerviel
Birth date	January 11, 1977
Birth place	Pont-l'Abbé, Brittany, France
Known for	Rogue trader
Alma mater	Lumière University Lyon 2University of Nantes
Occupation	Trader, consultant
Nationality	France
Education	Master's degree in Finance
Employer	Société Générale (formerly)Lemaire Consultants (currently)
Home town	Pont-l'Abbé
Criminal charge	Abuse of confidenceillegal access to computers
Parents	Charles (deceased)Marie José
Spouse	(separated) }}

Jérôme Kerviel (; born 1977) is a French trader who has a pending appeal of his conviction in the January 2008 Société Générale trading loss incident for breach of trust, forgery and unauthorized use of the bank's computers, resulting in losses valued at €4.9 billion. Société Générale characterizes Kerviel as a rogue trader and claims Kerviel worked these trades alone, and without its authorization, assertions that have been met with skepticism from expert commentators and analysts alike. Kerviel had told investigators that such practices are widespread and that getting a profit makes the hierarchy turn a blind eye. Kerviel published a book in May 2010, ''L'engrenage: Mémoires d’un Trader'' (Downward spiral: Memoires of a Trader), in which he alleges that his superiors knew of his trading activities, and that the practice was very common.

Early life

Jérôme Kerviel grew up in Pont-l'Abbé, Brittany. His mother, Marie-Josée, is a retired hairdresser and his father, Charles, who died in 2006, was a blacksmith. Kerviel has an older brother, Olivier. Kerviel is married, but he and his wife recently separated.

He graduated in 2000 from University Lumière Lyon 2 with a Master of Finance specializing in organization and control of financial markets. The university's financial program, which was initiated in the 1990s with the support of France's larger banks, was intended to prepare students for middle and back-office positions in the trading departments of financial institutions. Prior to that he received a bachelor's degree in Finance from the University of Nantes.

During an interview, one of his former lecturers at Lyon, Gisèle Reynaud, stated that "He was a student just like the others, a young man, and he didn't distinguish himself from the others." In 2001, at the suggestion of Thierry Mavic, the Mayor of Pont l'Abbé, Kerviel stood for a seat on the local council with the Union for a Popular Movement party but was not elected.

Société Générale

Kerviel joined the middle office of the bank Société Générale in the summer of 2000, working in its compliance department. In 2005 he was promoted to the bank's Delta One products team in Paris where he was a junior trader. Société Générale's Delta One business includes program trading, exchange-traded funds, swaps, index futures and quantitative trading. Christian Noyer, governor of the Bank of France, has described Kerviel as a "computer genius"; however, sources within Société Générale described Kerviel as "not a star". Kerviel earned a bonus of €60,000 on top of a €74,000 salary in 2006, considered modest in terms of the salaries paid to traders in the financial markets. He had hoped for a €600,000 bonus for 2007 and would have received at least half that amount.

Unauthorized trading

The bank states that Kerviel was assigned to arbitrage discrepancies between equity derivatives and cash equity prices, and "began creating the fictitious trades in late 2006 and early 2007, but that these transactions were relatively small. The fake trading increased in frequency, and in size".

Bank officials claim that throughout 2007, Kerviel had been trading profitably in anticipation of falling market prices; however, they have accused him of exceeding his authority to engage in unauthorized trades totaling as much as €49.9 billion, a figure far higher than the bank's total market capitalization. Bank officials claim that Kerviel tried to conceal the activity by creating losing trades intentionally so as to offset his early gains. According to the BBC, Kerviel generated in hidden profits at the beginning of 2008. His employers say they uncovered unauthorized trading traced to Kerviel on 2008. The bank then closed out these positions over three days of trading beginning 2008, a period after which the market experienced a large drop in equity indices, and losses attributed are estimated at ().

The bank claimed Kerviel "had taken massive fraudulent directional positions in 2007 and 2008 far beyond his limited authority" and that the trades involved European stock index futures. Though bank officials say Kerviel apparently worked alone, skeptics question how unauthorized trading of this magnitude could go unnoticed. Kerviel's unassuming background and position have heightened the skepticism that he worked alone. Some analysts suggest that unauthorised trading of this scale may have gone unnoticed initially due to the high volume in low-risk trades normally conducted by his department. The bank said that whenever the fake trades were questioned, Kerviel would describe it as a mistake then cancel the trade, after which he would replace that trade with another transaction using a different instrument to avoid detection. Kerviel's lawyers, Elisabeth Meyer and Christian Charrière-Bournazel, said that the bank's managers "brought the loss on themselves"; accused the bank's management of wanting to "raise a smokescreen to divert public attention from far more substantial losses in the last few months"; and said that Kerviel had made the bank a profit of US$2 billion as of 2007.

Managers for Société Générale have described some of the means Kerviel employed to avoid the bank's internal controls and escape detection. Its Executive Chairman Daniel Bouton describes the pattern as like "a mutating virus" in which hundreds of thousands of trades were hidden behind offsetting faked hedge trades. Officials say Kerviel was careful to close the trades in just two or three days, just before the trades' timed controls would trigger notice from the bank's internal control system, and Kerviel would then shift those older positions to newly initiated trades. City experts have expressed skepticism of the bank's account, saying that a pattern of closing out trades within the three day cycle alleged could not be accomplished given the immense sums involved.

Kerviel is not thought to have profited personally from the suspicious trades. Prosecutors say Kerviel has been cooperative with the investigation, and has told them his actions were also practiced by other traders in the company. Kerviel admits to exceeding his credit limits, but claims he was working to increase bank profits. He told authorities that the bank was happy with his previous year's performance, and was expecting to be paid a €300,000 bonus on a declared profit (approximately 0.5%) which illustrates the definition of "fair pay" in the French investment banks. Family members speaking out say the bank is using Kerviel as a scapegoat to excuse its recent heavy losses.

Legal repercussions

In answer to the rumors that Kerviel had fled Paris following the discovery of the unauthorised trading, on 2008 Kerviel's lawyer denied that he attempted to disappear and said he remained in Paris to face the accusations.

Also on 24 January 2008, Société Générale filed a lawsuit against "a 31-year-old person" for creating fraudulent documents, using forged documents and making attacks on an automated system, according to Clarisse Grillon, a spokeswoman for the Nanterre prosecutor. ''Le Figaro'' reported that in addition to the Société Générale lawsuit, a group of shareholders filed a lawsuit for fraud, breach of trust and forgery.

On the eve and afternoon of 25 January 2008, police raided the Paris headquarters of Société Générale and Kerviel's apartment in the western suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine to seize his computer files. On 26 January 2008, the Paris prosecutors' office stated that Kerviel "is not on the run. He will be questioned at the appropriate time, as soon as the police have analysed documents provided by Société Générale." He was taken into police custody later that day.

Kerviel's initial 24-hour detention was extended to 48 hours while French law enforcement questioned him about possible accomplices. The investigation later widened to encompass his personal cell phone records, and to explore possible links to other individuals working at rival banks and private investment firms who may be involved. The police were investigating whether he worked alone, and whether any investors outside of Société Générale may have been tipped off in advance. Police were interested whether others were involved either in the trades themselves or received notice of the bank's impending sell-off before the details of the scandal were publicly disclosed.

Kerviel was formally charged on 2008 with abuse of confidence and illegal access to computers. He was released from custody a short time after. The charges filed carry a maximum three-year prison term. On 2008 investigating judges Renaud van Ruymbeke and Françoise Desset had rejected prosecutor Jean-Claude Marin's bid to charge Kerviel with the more serious crime of "attempted fraud" and refuse bail.

His trial began on 8 June 2010. On 2010, he was found guilty and sentenced to five years of prison, with two years suspended, full restitution of the $6.7 billion which was lost, and a permanent ban from working in financial services. Caroline Guillaumin, a spokes-woman for Société Générale, stated that the restitution was "symbolic", and that the bank had no expectation that the sum would be paid. Olivier Metzner, Kerviel's lawyer, described the sentence as "extraordinary" and said that Kerviel would appeal. Kerviel's sentence was suspended until his appeal is completed.

Lemaire Consultants

Since release, Kerviel has been hired by Lemaire Consultants & Associates, an information systems and computer security consulting firm.

See also

Nick Leeson

References

Category:University of Nantes alumni Category:University of Lyon alumni

External links

Excerpts of police questioning Online Fans Hail Finance's Che Guevara by Katie Allen, ''The Guardian'', 2009 Fritz-Morgenthal, S./ Rafeld, H: Breaking Down the Biggest Trading Fraud in the History of Banking, in: Risk Professional, , pp. 47–51.

Category:1977 births Category:Living people Category:People from Finistère Category:Rogue traders

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