The regulatory issue that kept financial institutions bankers awake at night in 2014 was Additional Tier 1, or “going concern”, capital. They worried about how much banks would have to hold and whether investors would buy it. Now they have a fresh worry.

This year's focus is "gone concern" or total loss-absorbing capital. The idea is that it is not enough for a global bank to avoid going insolvent; it has to have issued instruments that can be called in after a crisis to recapitalise itself and convince regulators it is a going concern. That is potentially a huge slab of new bonds that need issuing for the 30 institutions defined as global systemically important banks, known as G-SIBs. But the market's willingness to invest in total loss-absorbing capital, or TLAC, may fall far short of European banks' needs, unless something changes.