For US banks, it is shaping up as something akin to a giant system-wide rights issue. Acting as underwriter and facilitator: the administration of President Barack Obama.

As early as this week, US regulators will start discussing with bank executives the outcome of "stress tests" they have carried out in an attempt to determine how much capital each of the top 19 banks would need comfortably to survive a deeper-than-expected recession. The tests have involved exhaustive analysis of bank assets over many weeks, during which investors and creditors have been left dangling in uncertainty.