Gilles Glicenstein had no idea when he left his Paris office on Tuesday, August 7 to join his family on holiday in Brittany that his final decision that day would come to be viewed as the start of the current credit crisis.

By the time it became widely known that BNP Paribas had suspended redemptions on three funds exposed to asset-backed securities, the market linked the development to sharp falls in US equity markets and it was front page news around the world. Glicenstein, chairman and chief executive of BNP Paribas Investment Partners, the bank’s institutional and mutual fund asset management arm, had to return to Paris to calm everybody down.