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The bank said it would seek about $8 billion in new capital, the New York Times reported.

The alleged fraud was committed by a trader in charge of "plain vanilla" hedging on European index futures, the bank said. A thorough investigation was said to indicate it was an isolated case.

The trader was expected to be dismissed along with his immediate supervisors, the Wall Street Journal said.

The bank said it learned of the alleged fraud, involving "elaborate fictitious transactions", Jan. 19 but waited until it could close out those trades before revealing the problem.

The trader "had taken massive fraudulent directional positions in 2007 and 2008 far beyond his limited authority", the bank said. He was aided by in-depth knowledge learned from earlier duties with the bank, the report said.

Societe Generale said it would write off $3 billion from its exposure to the U.S. mortgage market. It said it was also setting aside $580 million in provisions against the risk that losses in those two areas would grow.

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