A day after the French government said it would inject a second €10.5bn ($13.5bn) of capital into the country’s banks, Christian Noyer, chairman of the Banking Commission, the banking regulator, said French banks did “not really” need the money.

At a conference in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, Mr Noyer said French banks were “sound and robust and still exhibit high solvency ratios”. The state financial support was aimed at anticipating potential problems and not addressing actual shortfalls, he explained.