Shake-Up at French Bank That Backed Parretti : Movies: One executive in the Dutch subsidiary takes early retirement; another is transferred to Southeast Asia.

The big state-owned French bank Credit Lyonnais on Wednesday announced the early retirement of one senior executive and the transfer of another executive linked to controversial movie industry loans--including hundreds of millions to finance the takeover of the now-struggling MGM studio--from the bank’s Dutch subsidiary.

In a related announcement, the Rotterdam-based subsidiary, Credit Lyonnais Bank Nederland, for the first time released what it reported was a list of outstanding loans, totaling $888 million, granted to companies in which Italian financier Giancarlo Parretti “directly or indirectly is a majority shareholder.” Parretti’s Pathe Communications Corp. bought MGM/UA last year for about $1.4 billion.

The bank said it disclosed the loan figures to counteract what it said was “contradictory information (that) has circulated about loans granted to companies linked to Mr. Parretti.” Some bank analysts, including the French business magazine L’Expansion, had estimated Credit Lyonnais’ exposure to Parretti at $1.5 billion.

In Paris, the Credit Lyonnais parent bank (assets about $240 billion) quietly announced that Georges Vigon, European director of the bank and former chairman of Credit Lyonnais Bank Nederland and Parretti’s principal contact with the bank, was taking early retirement. In a release to the business newsletter Correspondence Economique, the bank headquarters also announced the transfer of Credit Lyonnais’ current Dutch bank chairman, Jean-Jacques Brutschi, to an unspecified position somewhere in Southeast Asia.

In another development, Parretti filed suit Tuesday in a Paris court against the French TV network Canal Plus. Parretti is seeking to block the network’s scheduled broadcast Sunday of a reportedly critical TV documentary about his career, his links to Credit Lyonnais and his takeover of MGM. The case is pending.

Coming only days before the annual French summer vacation break, the changes at Credit Lyonnais were a clear attempt by senior management to defuse some of the criticism surrounding the bank’s extensive dealings with Hollywood and particularly with Parretti, who was recently ousted by the bank from operational control of the studio, now called MGM-Pathe Communications Co.

But some of the loudest opponents of the bank’s management were quick to attack the announced changes as a cover-up and a move that does not reach high enough into the bank hierarchy.

“It was an operation to limit the damages and separate the top management of Credit Lyonnais from its responsibilities,” said opposition politician Francois d’Aubert, who for months has led a campaign against the bank and the governing Socialist Party over the Parretti issue.

D’Aubert said he intends to ask Credit Lyonnais Chairman Jean-Yves Haberer and International Division Director Alexis Wolkenstein to appear before the Finance Committee of the National Assembly in coming weeks to answer questions about the movie loans to Parretti.

As chairman of operations at the Dutch bank after Credit Lyonnais acquired it in 1983, Vigon is said to have expanded the bank’s lending to independent production companies in Hollywood, several of which eventually collapsed in bankruptcy. Vigon later was promoted to become one of the bank’s 15 general directors. But other higher-ranking Credit Lyonnais officials were involved in the Hollywood loan business. Vigon is outranked in the bank’s international division by Credit Lyonnais Deputy Chairman Wolkenstein and fellow director Serge Boutissou.

Opposition leader d’Aubert contended in a telephone interview Wednesday that the loans to Parretti could not have been made without the approval of Vigon’s superiors in Paris.

“It’s obvious that the decisions made on behalf of Mr. Parretti had been impossible without the approval coming from those at the highest levels of the bank.”

Credit Lyonnais Loans to Parretti

Outstanding loans granted by Credit Lyonnais Bank Nederland to companies directly or indirectly controlled by Giancarlo Parretti:

* Melia International: $375 million

* MGM-Pathe: $298 million*

* Pathe Communications: $98 million

* Comfinance: $54 million

* Interpart: $20 million

* Pathe Italia: $7 million

* G.E.N.A.F.: $6 million

* Real estate companies, others: $30 million

Does not include $299 million from factoring MGM-Pathe distribution contracts with Turner Broadcasting and certain overseas distributors; does not include unspecified loans to Sasea, controlled by Parretti associate Florio Fiorini.

* Includes a substantial amount already drawn under a $145-million line of credit.