In this light the cash call that Deutsche bank, Germany's biggest bank, embarked on just before the new Basel guidelines were released seems unlikely to set a trend.

A cash call might help find some of the money required, and, if Lloyds were to embark on a rights issue, it would mean that the taxpayer would have the opportunity to match its 43% stake in the bank.

Some still call the ocean a bank, though no longer in the sense of limitless cash.