Daniel Bouton, chairman of Société Générale, has invested €1.5m ($2.2m) to take up rights in the rescue €5.5bn capital increase that was launched by the French bank to repair the damage done by the industry's biggest rogue trading scandal.

The gesture comes as Mr Bouton faces severe public and political pressure to step down from SocGen after the scandal revealed weaknesses in the bank's control systems and led to a €4.9bn loss on the unauthorised trading.