The timing could not have been better – an innovative banking alliance between one of the new financial powerhouses of China and one of old Europe’s most aristocratic and private banking houses.

Michel Cicurel, chairman of Compagnie Financière Edmond de Rothschild, compared the decision of the Bank of China to invest €236m for a 20 per cent stake in the French financial services subsidiary of the Rothschild empire as a “little ray of sunshine” amid the global financial storm. The French government too applauded a deal it considers a vote of confidence in France and its economy.