French banks rock solid

Fears over the consequences of the big French banks' strong involvement in Greece caused their share prices to drop on Monday. Since August the banks in question have received no more short-term dollar loans. But the markets' reactions are exaggerated, writes the business paper Les Echos: "As far as liquidity goes the situation is under control. Certainly, access to the dollar has been more difficult since the start of August, but it hasn't been cut off altogether. And the ECB has repeated in the last couple of days that it would provide the necessary liquidity. Consequently the French banks are not in such dire straits. Like the entire European banking sector, they are victims of the indecision of the Eurozone governments faced with the Greek peril. Neither an injection of funds nor a public liquidity mechanism are called for. In fact, like all Europeans what the banks really need is a rapid political solution to the the sovereign debt crisis, to prevent all risk of contagion."

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