Natixis has come under attack from a US activist investor who is pushing the French investment bank to scrap its €3.7bn rights issue in favour of reorganising its capital structure.

David Einhorn, president of Greenlight Capital, on Monday wrote to Dominique Ferrero, chief executive of Natixis, setting out his proposal, which would see the bank raise capital by redeeming some of its cross-shareholdings in Caisse d’Epargne and Banque Populaire, its controlling shareholders.