The German government seems to be having considerable difficulties in getting its €80bn ($105bn) bank recapitalisation scheme off the ground. On the other side of the Rhine, the French administration has faced no such problems in persuading the country’s six largest banks to access its €40bn recapitalisation fund.

Does this imply that French banks are in greater need of shoring up their balance sheets than their German counterparts? Absolutely not, they all claim. “We are not the Royal Bank of Scotland or UBS,” says one French banker. The aim is not to recapitalise the banks, insists Christian Noyer, Banque de France governor, adding that they did not need fresh equity capital.