Today’s short post looks at the news that Société Générale (hereafter SocGen) has settled with the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) for €963 million ($1.05 billion) over alleged bribery . The settlement, which averted a large court case in London, was the result of a claim from the LIA regarding a $58.4 million payment made to a Libyan businessmen made to secure future investment deals; the investment group had asserted that the payment was a bribe, and thus any trades that occurred afterwards were invalid. In this post, this story will be dissected further, but the ultimate conclusion will be a brief analysis on the culture of big banks; the situation in Libya over recent years is a key indicator to the behaviour of big banks once a market is opened up to them, and for all of us this is an important factor to bear in mind. The Libyan Investment Authority was established in 2006, under the control of then-leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, to control the ever-increasing surplus st...