Investigators also said Wednesday they found no evidence that there were any personal monetary gains made through the allegedly unauthorized positions taken by futures trader Jerome Kerviel.

In an interim report, internal investigators at France's second-largest bank said procedures were followed correctly but they failed to stop Kerviel, 31, who is accused of carrying out trades that forced the bank to mop up almost 5 billion euros ($7.33 billion) in losses.

"At this stage of the investigations, there is no evidence of embezzlement or internal or external complicity," according to a report by a committee charged with investigating the losses. "The investigations are continuing ... to cover a wider area than the activities of the author of the fraud."

Societe Generale has said Kerviel began trading illicitly in 2005 for small amounts, building up to bets totaling 50 billion euros ($73.28 billion) discovered on Jan. 18, which the bank then liquidated.

The report said the bank failed to detect the fraud until January 18 because of a variety of effective concealment tricks allegedly used by Kerviel. The bank staff also failed to systematically carry out more detailed checks, and lacked "certain controls" that "might have identified the fraud."

Headed by board member Jean-Martin Folz, former CEO of PSA Peugeot Citroen, the committee is being helped by more than 40 bank inspectors and auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers to examine the causes and sizes of the trading losses and look into whether the bank accurately communicated information about the scandal.

The committee said it is declining to draw conclusions at this stage about how responsible any of Kerviel's superiors are. It plans to deliver a full report at the bank's shareholders meeting May 27.

The French market authority is also investigated the case, along with the French banking commission and a French court.

Several weaknesses in Societe Generale's procedures have been identified, and correcting them requires tightening computer security, reinforcing controls and taking more into account the possibility of fraud, the committee said.

Societe Generale will announce its 2007 results Thursday. An early statement to investors that asked for a 5.5 billion euros (nearly $8 billion) capital increase said net profit fell to 947 million euros ($1.37 billion), from 5.2 billion euros ($7.62 billion) in 2006.