Here they come: Europe’s two new, all-inclusive and supposedly all-seeing financial watchdogs. One will look for systemic risks. The other will watch over individual institutions. Both will be posted at the gates of Mammon. Both have licence to bark at financial dangers, although not publicly. Much like the mild mastiff in Coleridge’s Christabel, their warnings will be “sixteen short howls, not over loud”.

Even so, this is not a case of Brussels quietly legislating “straight bananas”. Europe does need pan-European regulators. The existence of cross-border banks sees to that, and the problems when they fail. Such bodies also need to include non-euro voices. Here the mooted appointment of Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, as deputy of the European Systemic Risk Board, which will monitor financial stability, is a deft move. It acknowledges the need to bring on board the UK, home of Europe’s largest financial industry, if new regulations are to carry any weight. (Although whether Mr King, a mild academic at the Bank since 1991, brings credibility having failed to spot this financial crisis is moot.)