First Ireland, then Germany, now Denmark, Sweden and Austria. One by one, each country has taken steps to restore confidence in its embattled banking sector.
Whether the belt-and-braces guarantee handed to Irish savers, or the somewhat complex partial guarantee Chancellor Angela Merkel is offering to German banking customers, steps have been taken to stem the outflow of money from savers and corporate and institutional investors alike.
But in the UK, there remains largely silence. In spite of the Financial Services Authority moving on Friday to raise the guarantee on private savings from £35,000 per person to £50,000, the move was long awaited, and largely a token one.
As British savers see their cousins over the water in Ireland or in continental Europe moving protected, so the Government must move to reassure savers that the future of the British banking sector is assured.
The latest plan - to invest taxpayer's money in major banks so boosting their balance sheets so as to allow them to begin lending again - is an interesting one.
Not only does it offer a potential solution to the stagnation in the mortgage market, but it will also be viewed as an indirect guarantee of the British banking sector, one that is increasingly needed.
The devil will of course be in the detail, but when Chancellor Alistair Darling takes to his feet in the House of Commons this afternoon, he must do so with conviction.
Saying nothing is not an option. Vocal reassurance will not be enough. Darling must act, (The prat has been acting all along, now is time for him to resign and let someone who knows what they are doing to step in) and do so quickly, before British banks begin to go the way of their continental cousins.
We cant wait to see what inducements those foreign johnny's will be offering to temp British savers cash over to them! Great thing European Unity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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