SocGen receives Libor probe demand: source

Societe Generale, France's second-biggest listed bank, has received a new request for information from U.S. authorities investigating the Libor rate-fixing scandal, a banking source told Reuters on Friday.

SocGen has already said publicly it is cooperating with probes into whether banks manipulated the Libor rate - the benchmark for $300 trillion of contracts and loans across the world - and is conducting its own internal inquiry.

"The request is not a subpoena to appear in a court but a request for more information from U.S. regulators," the source said.

SocGen declined to comment. Chief Executive Frederic Oudea reiterated last month that the bank had not received any allegation or charge linked to the probe.

Earlier press reports said SocGen was among nine banks to have received subpoenas in connection with the probe in August and September.

The ongoing rate-rigging probe led by regulators in the U.S. and U.K. has already ensnared major banks like Britain's Royal Bank of Scotland, Bank of America and Switzerland's UBS. Barclays, the first bank to settle charges, lost its chief executive over the scandal.

Shares of the bank were down 2.7 percent to 24.21 euros ($31.38), broadly in line with other French banks following a downgrade of BNP Paribas, France's No. 1 listed bank, by Standard & Poor's.

(Reporting by Lionel Laurent and Matthias Blamont; Editing by James Regan and Christian Plumb)