As governments lean heavily on private banks to recapitalise themselves, their own banks – the multilateral development groups – are leading by example. Robert Zoellick, World Bank president, is the latest to pass the hat around with a call for $5bn of new equity. This is no bad idea – but it must not get in the way of even better ones.

This would be the first capital increase in 20 years for the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the World Bank arm that lends on near-commercial terms to middle-income nations. Halfway through a lending spree, the IBRD is disbursing $100bn over three years, more than twice the usual volume. Because of statutory limits on IBRD leverage (its equity-to-loans ratio is 37 per cent), it warns that without more capital it will “have to ration” loans.