Across Europe national governments have been forced to pump hundreds of billions of euros into stricken institutions and in return have taken substantial holdings in large banks. Like the UK Government and its creation of UK Financial Investments, governments in Europe have created agencies to manage these holdings and ensure the taxpayers’ investment is eventually repaid.

Two weeks before UKFI was created, the French Government announced the setting up of a state-owned entity called Société de Prises de Participation de l'État to purchase €10.5bn ($13.2bn) of subordinated debt issued by six financial institutions, including BNP Paribas and Société Générale, with the proviso that they must commit to increasing their loans to households, companies and local government.