When a company announces more than one new strategic direction, it is usually a deafening sell signal. On Thursday, unveiling its half-year results, Natixis served up three: “increased solidity”, a reduced risk profile and a focus on recurring, rather than one-off, revenues. The weakest of the big four French banks, Natixis needs to think again.

Created by the 2006 merger of the investment banking and asset management businesses of two mutual banking networks, Natixis is an awkward hybrid. It is overexposed to all the wrong products, chiefly US and European securitisation and underexposed to emerging markets. It has lagged the European banks sector by almost two-thirds since birth.