Mr Leeson, who brought down Barings Bank in 1995, said authorities had failed to close loopholes highlighted by his case and other scandals that have rocked banks over the years.

He also described the sense of 'panic' which the French trader, named as Jerome Kerviel, would have felt as his secret losses mounted at the Societe Generale bank.

'It's exactly the same story as Barings in 95,' he told BBC television, commenting on a multi-billion-euro fraud at France's second bank, Societe Generale.

'They haven't closed down the loopholes. When you look at what the banks are trying to do, they focus on making the money. They're not too interested in trying to save it,' added Mr Leeson, who now lives in western Ireland.

In Thursday's new scandal, Societe Generale said a single rogue trader carried out a massive 4.9-billion-euro (S$10.3 billion) fraud - one of the biggest in the finance industry.

'The first thing that shocked me was not necessarily that it had happened again - I think rogue trading is probably a daily occurrence amongst the financial markets,' said Mr Leeson.

'The thing that really shocked me was the size of it.'

Barings Bank
In 1995 it was discovered that Londoner Leeson had run up trading losses of over 850 million pounds when he worked as a trader in the Singapore office of Barings Bank.

It equalled almost the entire assets of Barings, Britain's oldest merchant bank. Barings was later bought for one pound by the Dutch banking and insurance group ING.

Mr Leeson went on the run but was brought back to Singapore to face trial and served four years in prison. While inside he was diagnosed as suffering from colon cancer and his first marriage broke down.

After his conviction Mr Leeson wrote a bestseller, 'Rogue Trader", which was made into a film starring Ewan McGregor.

Mr Leeson said he could understand what was going through the French trader's mind in recent months.

'The thing that I wanted and I'm sure the thing that this guy wanted as well was success. Success was the thing that drove him on. Probably his biggest fear is the fear of failure,' he said.

'When he got himself into the situation there would be be a degree of panic.' But he said: 'He survived for one day, he survived for a week, he survived for a month... Eventually you start to believe maybe that it's not as quite as bad as it was.

'This isn't about him getting rich or getting rich quick. He's got himself into a bad situation. He's made some extremely bad decisions. There should have been checks and controls in place,' he said.

Banking system still vulnerable
Asked if the banking system remains vulnerable, he said: 'It is as vulnerable as it was in my day. I just didn't believe that something of this magnitude would occur,' he added.

'Rogue trading happens probably on a daily basis. The banks don't like bringing it to the surface, because it will be a consumer confidence problem,' he added.

But he said: 'I never for one minute believe that it would get to this degree of magnitude and this degree of loss.'

Mr Leeson, 40, whose second wife is Irish, joined Galway United Football Club in 2005 as commercial manager. He later became general manager and last year was appointed chief executive.

Earlier the Briton said the French scandal had erupted just as he was about to travel to France.

'By some strange coincidence I am flying to Paris tomorrow morning. I am going over for a holiday with my wife. Can you believe that?' he said, contacted on his mobile phone. -- AFP