SocGen bosses give up stock options after outcry

President Nicolas Sarkozy had called the awards a "scandal." On Sunday Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said she expected the bank to act responsibly and give the options up.

"In order to stop the current controversy, we have decided to give up the benefit of these stock options," the quartet wrote in a letter to SocGen employees.

The bank said on Wednesday it had decided to award 150,000 stock options to Chief Executive Frederic Oudea, 70,000 to Chairman Daniel Bouton and 50,000 each to Oudea's deputies, Didier Alix and Severin Cabannes.

They had already said they would not exercise any options while the group was benefiting from government aid.

Lagarde said she had asked them to go further.

"It is high time Societe Generale got in step with public interest," she said on Europe 1 radio.

French banks received 10.5 billion euros in aid in 2008, with SocGen taking a 1.7 billion slice, to help them weather the global credit squeeze and keep on lending. A similar amount is being made available this year.

Lagarde said the bank should stop awarding stock options in the current climate and threatened legislation if it was deemed necessary after discussion with unions.

In January, the management of SocGen and other French banks said they would forego their bonuses for 2008 at the request of the government.

Corporate pay has been a hot topic on both sides of the Atlantic in recent days as the politicians and the public react angrily to news of benefits given to companies receiving taxpayers' money.

American International Group was at the center of the storm after paying $165 million in bonuses following $180 billion in government aid.

The subject is particularly sensitive in France after more than 3 million people took part in protests last Thursday over the government's handling of the economic crisis.

Many of them are angry that the state has made available billions of euros loans for big banks but done little to help consumers.

(Reporting by Anna Willard and Laure Bretton; editing by John Stonestreet)