The French government is finally drawing a line under the Credit Lyonnais affair, settling the debts of the formerly state-owned bank which collapsed back in the 1990s.<br /><br />French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said Paris will borrow 4.5 billion euros by the end of this year to do that, taking advantage of low interest rates. <br /><br />Reportedly the total cost to French taxpayers will have been 14.7 billion euros since the bank first got into trouble in 1993.<br /><br />Credit Lyonnais – which was the largest French bank at the time – had to be bailed out by the government after losing billions, allegedly due to mismanagement. <br /><br />Now rebranded as LCL, it was taken over by Credit Agricole 10 years ago.
