The EU's main bail-out fund - the European Financial Stability Facility - has been boosted to around a trillion euros.
The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), the euro zone's bail-out fund, must carry out simultaneous injections of capital into the region's banks as soon as it can.
Yet more than just amending voting rights, Germany's real goal is to create a permanent means of restructuring the debts of bust countries and a bail-out fund that is treaty-based.
In a recent report, " The Implications of the Global Financial Crisis for Low-Income Countries, " the Fund singled out sub-Saharan Africa as particularly vulnerable to the crisis, as lower global growth reduces export demand and depresses commodity prices.
The euro zone has enough resources of its own to fund a bail-out.
ECONOMIST: The IMF needs to change tack if Spain asks for a bail-out
French finance minister Christine Lagarde denying there were plans for an emergency EU bail-out fund to help banks on the brink of going under - but saying she wanted a level playing field among EU countries when it came to accounting rules.
The chancellor insisted Britain will not be part of a much larger, permanent EU bail-out fund for the euro zone being debated, and vowed to seek the winding-down of the temporary mechanism.
As Mrs Merkel tried to gather support for Germany's contribution to the European bail-out fund earlier this week, German regulators announced a unilateral ban on some types of short-selling.
His spokeswoman said the UK would not contribute "directly or indirectly" to the eurozone bail-out fund.
BBC: Eurozone crisis: Right to boost IMF funds, Cameron says
Indeed, the creation of a big bail-out fund was meant to make default unthinkable.
Pressure is mounting to expand the bail-out fund to ease financing conditions for Italy and Spain.
It said the EU's big bail-out fund would be temporary, but it is being made permanent.
ECONOMIST: Germany continues to dither over how best to rescue the euro
That concern looks overblown and in any case Spain could tap Europe's new bail-out fund.
Still, much of the committee's growth has been in money raised in "road shows" -- out-of-town fund-raisers.
CNN: latimes.com: Talking baseball and politics with George W. Bush
This requires more support for bond markets by the European Central Bank or by an expanded bail-out fund.
It is not a bail-out fund, he insists, because independent experts from abroad would make the investment decisions.
ECONOMIST: Too many South Koreans are reluctant to change their ways
They also want a bail-out fund to help people stay in their homes.
In July leaders agreed to let the main bail-out fund, known as the EFSF, recapitalise banks and buy bonds.
But a failure to ratify would mean that Ireland could not qualify for future support from the euro-zone bail-out fund.
The treaty setting up Europe's bail-out fund would also have to be changed to allow money to be supplied directly to banks.
His original idea for a common European bank bail-out fund was dropped in the face of German resistance to being seen to pay for others.
It is if, or when, the permanent bail-out fund starts to prove inadequate that the question of the future oversight of national economies becomes crucial.
Mrs Merkel struggled to persuade members of her squabbling coalition to vote for an expansion of the euro zone's bail-out fund in parliament this week.
ECONOMIST: Why Germany seems not to want a quick fix for the euro crisis
The Carlyle Group, for instance, encompasses not only a buy-out fund, but also venture capital, real estate, mezzanine loans and a fund focused on Asia.
ECONOMIST: Public offerings are all the rage for private-equity firms
In the past, the premiums they paid into a central emergency-fund for bailing out troubled banks were crudely linked to the size of their balance sheets.
Germany says the EU should now seek an all-embracing deal, including on the size and scope of the bail-out fund, in time for the next summit in March.
Portugal has not yet called on money from the European bail-out fund, but many analysts believe it is just a matter of time as the country's economic situation worsens.
In September Mrs Merkel must secure parliamentary ratification of a deal she agreed with other euro-zone leaders in July to expand the powers of the single currency's bail-out fund.
But Europe's bail-out fund is not big enough to handle the country next in line: Spain, the euro's fourth-biggest economy, with a GDP bigger than Greece, Ireland and Portugal combined.
应用推荐