The readiness of institutional investors to support a €4.3bn ($6.3bn) equity issue by BNP Paribas to pay off the French government’s stake in the big banking group is a simultaneous gesture of no confidence in state ownership and great confidence in the future of banking. All past experience suggests that the no-confidence vote is at least well merited.

A crisis-induced government presence on the share register brings formal conditions and informal political pressure, leading to demands for credit expansion while capital ratios remain stretched, along with pay constraints regardless of market circumstance. So BNP Paribas will not be the last to look for an escape route.