As most states, France has been affected by the global financial crisis and has quickly taken appropriate steps to tackle its worst effects. Thus, France immediately took measures to respond to the liquidity crisis and recapitalised the most important banks in order for them to continue to finance the ‘real economy’. Some measures have been aimed directly at the ‘real economy’, such as the creation of a mediator for the distribution of credit and the establishment of a French sovereign wealth fund aimed at investing in strategic companies facing difficulties and in medium-sized companies. After the first wave of the crisis, France took a preventive measure concerning the remuneration of traders and a punitive measure by creating an exceptional taxation of traders' remuneration. But the crisis has also provoked a long-term reform of the French supervisory landscape, merging the supervisory authorities of the banking and the insurance landscape into a single body, the Authority for Prudential Control (Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel).
