Leading U.S. bank regulator Sheila Bair said on Friday that the government's capital injections into the largest banks was probably not a good thing.

Bair, the chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, said the billions of dollars of capital infusions last year had a terrible impact on public perception toward the financial industry and government regulators.

I think at the time it sounded like the right thing to do and, again, it was part of an international effort, but I just see all the problems it's created, Bair said during an interview with PBS NewsHour. I think we would have tried to dissuade Treasury from making these capital investments.

(Reporting by Karey Wutkowski,editing by Leslie Gevirtz)