The Fonds de Réserve pour les Retraites, the €33.4bn ($47.7bn) French state reserve fund, has come through the sub-prime crisis relatively unscathed so far, thanks to a tactical allocation away from equities during the summer.

The FRR has produced a return of 5.7% for the nine months to the end of September, a performance it described as "respectable in the current climate".