THE French Justice Minister, Mr Jacques Toubon, has asked the Paris prosecutor to probe whether former bosses of the state owned bank, Credit Lyonnais, can be prosecuted over huge losses, the ministry said yesterday.

The move followed a request by the Finance Minister, Mr Jean Anhuis, asking him to launch an investigation of alleged accounting irregularities when Mr Jean Yves Haberer was chairman of the bank.

The ministry said Mr Arthuis has asked Mr Toubon to investigate the accounts of Altus Finance, one of Credit Lyonnais's key units which Mr Haberer headed.

It said any irregularity "if proved intentional, could constitute the offence of publishing false and deceptive information, or even falsifying and using falsified commercial documents".

Mr Haberer was chairman of Credit Lyonnais from 1988 until he was fired by the government in 1993, presiding over a rapid expansion programme that transformed it into the world's largest bank outside Japan.

Mr Arthuis' request briefly undermined the franc last week as traders reacted, worried that a probe could hurt Bank of France governor Mr Jean Claude Trichet, who was head of the Treasury and in charge of supervising public banks in the early 1990s.

Mr Arthuis later said that Mr Trichet was in no way targeted by the investigation but media commentators have suggested a judicial probe would inevitably involve examination of the effectiveness of the government's financial supervisory system.

Last week, the newspaper Le Monde reported that the national audit office had supplied Mr Arthuis with information allegedly showing the balance sheets of Altus Finance for 1991, 1992 and 1993 did not "faithfully represent" the truth.

Some 42 judicial actions have already been launched against the state bank's subsidiaries. But the parent company has only been investigated by a parliamentary commission which concluded in 1994 nothing could be reproached to Jean Yves Haberer in terms of ethics, honesty and honor".