The Italian government is set to provide up to €30bn ($39bn, £24bn) in capital for banks in the next few days so they can keep lending to companies, despite Rome insisting for weeks that the banking sector did not need to be recapitalised.

The government was likely to make the money available in instruments that would inject cash into banks to boost their core capital ratios and their ability to lend, but may stop short of directly investing in the sector, several bankers said on Tuesday.