The US Securities and Exchange Commission is looking at whether Société Générale violated US securities laws as it unwound and revealed its €4.9bn loss from Jérôme Kerviel’s allegedly rogue derivatives trades, the Financial Times has learnt.

The inquiry is at an early stage and the Washington agency might end up concluding that the issues involved are best handled by French authorities because the problems are only tangentially related to the US, people familiar with the matter said.