French court orders Natixis to pay 7.5m euro fine in sub-prime case

A French criminal court on Thursday ordered investment bank Natixis to pay a 7.5 million  euro (US$8.95 million) fine after finding the lender guilty of misleading investors in 2007 on its financial strength related to its sub-prime exposure, Reuters reports.

The lender had denied any wrongdoing. Natixis was among the French banks hit the hardest by the crisis in 2007, when bonds backed by low quality mortgages - dubbed sub-prime loans - collapsed, causing losses for many lenders as the fallout spread through financial markets.

Natixis eventually had to be rescued by its parent bank BPCE and was later restructured.