Which is presumably why Dexia is apparently going to be broken up and recapitalised.
Two European banks failures over the weekend: Proton in Greece and Dexia in France and Belgium.
FORBES: Dexia and Proton: the First of the Coming Wave of European Bank Failures
Dexia, which is jointly owned by France and Belgium, has significant exposure to Greek debts.
BBC: Eurozone crisis: David Cameron calls for decisive steps
The biggest financial commitment is being made by Belgium, which is buying Dexia's retail operations.
Meanwhile the collapse of a Franco-Belgian banking giant, Dexia, has brought home the pressing need to recapitalise Europe's banks.
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Dexia has been the latest to come under pressure after troubling reports of its financial condition this week.
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Dexia, which used short-term funding to finance long-term lending, found credit drying up as the euro zone debt crisis worsened.
FORBES: Dexia and Proton: the First of the Coming Wave of European Bank Failures
Market people are worried that Dexia, a Belgian bank, could be hit hard, bringing Belgian sovereign debt into the picture next.
Dexia becomes the latest European bank to be bailed out as the deepening credit crisis continues to shake the banking sector.
Dexia won't need to be part of that plan, itself, because today it has been rescued by Belgian, French and Luxembourg governments.
France and Belgium may be able to stand behind Dexia but supporting entire banking systems is beyond the capacity of many sovereigns.
When the government helped to bail out Dexia, a Franco-Belgian bank, last year, he picked a former adviser, Pierre Mariani, to run it.
There are signs that - after the Dexia debacle - eurozone finance ministers recognise that it is a priority to strengthen European banks.
So far, for pragmatic rather than ideological reasons, the French state has bailed out just one troubled bank: Dexia, a small Franco-Belgian institution.
Meanwhile, France, Belgium and Luxembourg have approved a plan to secure the future of the troubled bank Dexia, following fears it could go bankrupt.
BBC: Eurozone crisis: David Cameron calls for decisive steps
Following the Icelandic crisis the council renegotiated the terms of the Dexia investment, accepting a lower interest rate in return for the government guarantees.
Financial issues like Deutsche Boerse, UBS and Dexia all saw gains.
Two nationalised French financial firms, Caisse des Depots et Consignations and La Banque Postale, are taking over Dexia's economically important business providing financing to municipal government.
Then in Belgium, Dexia went down this summer (2011).
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Which is perceived today by investors as something of a joke, in that the cost of insuring Dexia's subordinate debt implies that providers of this subordinated debt are facing losses of 35%.
The important point about Dexia is that its current difficulties tend to undermine confidence in the famous European stress tests, the recently completed Europe-wide process of verifying that the region's banks are tickety boo.
The near collapse of the Franco-Belgian bank Dexia is the event that focused the minds of eurozone leaders on the urgency of putting in place a comprehensive plan to strengthen European banks in general.
Dexia however is a different kettle of piscinity.
FORBES: Dexia and Proton: the First of the Coming Wave of European Bank Failures
To translate: this portrayed Dexia as one of the strongest banks in Europe, because it meant Dexia was deemed by regulators to have more than twice the amount of capital it needs to absorb losses.
Given the size of Dexia, with a 500bn euro plus balance sheet - comparable in size to all Greek banks put together - eurozone governments viewed its rescue as vital to avoid more market turmoil.
The crisis of confidence in the ability of eurozone countries with huge borrowings to repay all they owe has already deteriorated into a banking crisis - whose most serious manifestation to date has been talks to rescue the big Franco-Belgian bank Dexia.
On Dexia, it was only on July 15 that the European Banking Authority disclosed that this retail and public-sector finance bank would have a ratio of core Tier One capital to assets of 10.4%, even after incurring notional losses from harsh simulated financial and economic conditions.
At the time, other big cross-border banks, such as Fortis, a Benelux bank, and Dexia, a Belgo-Dutch bank, were in deep trouble, and there were growing concerns among European officials that a country could be overwhelmed if it was home to a big international bank that failed.
And Belgium, France and - to a tiny extent - Luxembourg are also providing guarantees that lenders of up to 90bn euros to Dexia over the coming ten years would get their money back (they are guaranteeing up to 90bn euros of inter-bank and bond funding for up to a decade).
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