Few recent financial scandals rival the Credit Lyonnais affair. In the 1980s this profligate French state-owned institution grew into one of the world's biggest banks, following a lending spree unleashed under Jean-Yves Haberer, its then chairman. Credit Lyonnais became notorious as the bank that could not say no. It helped several shady entrepreneurs to buy assets all over the world. But then its aspirations all went horribly wrong. When recession hit in the early 1990s, large sums disappeared after much of Credit Lyonnais's exuberant lending blew up in its face. The bank began to record huge losses—and to fiddle its accounts to disguise them.
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