EU Banks Warn of Fewer Airbuses in Sky as Credit Crunch Looms

A top lobbyist for France’s largest bank says European lawmakers will have only themselves to blame if pressure to bolster capital too quickly results in more Boeing Co. planes at the expense of European rival Airbus SAS.

“In the case of the French banks, activities where they were leaders like aircraft leasing or shipping financing will be partly taken over by U.S. or Chinese banks,” Dominique Graber, co-head of BNP Paribas SA’s public and prudential affairs, told the European parliament’s committee on economic and monetary affairs in Brussels on Oct. 11. “One will also not be surprised if later on more Boeings than Airbuses get funded.”