It is only recently that the penny dropped with banks that the new Basel regulations, which are set to come in by 2012, will have a big impact on capital requirements - and that many financial institutions will once again need to go to the markets and raise yet more funding.

The European bank analysts at Citigroup are the latest to make their prediction, arguing that banks will get a 10% earnings hit from both increased capital requirements and funding costs on the back of volatility in the markets.