Patrick Ponsolle, the former chairman of Eurotunnel and newly appointed head of Morgan Stanley in France, could have an awkward bit of explaining to do to Laurent Fabius, the mercurial French finance minister.

Morgan Stanley's announcement of Ponsolle's new role detailed his early career as a civil servant. In the early 1980s, Ponsolle was chef de cabinet of a certain Laurent Fabius, described in the release as a humble 'former budget minister'.