US fund managers have been making multibillion-dollar bets on the recovery of banks in the eurozone over the past four months in the belief that the region’s stuttering economic recovery will soon gather steam.

The move follows a slight increase in eurozone economic growth in the second quarter, seen by many investors as the clearest indication yet that the worst peacetime economic upheaval since the Great Depression is coming to an end.

The value of the shares reported as owned by US-based funds in the region’s 10 largest listed banks has risen 40 per cent from June this year to €33bn, according to FT calculations based on Thomson Reuters data. The number of shares reported as owned rose 10 per cent over the same period, following big investments from groups such as T Rowe Price, BlackRock and Waddle & Reed.