Risk assets and currencies have been placated since the start of the new week by news that G7 finance ministers and central bank governors will hold a conference call later today to discuss how they should respond to Europe's worsening sovereign debt and banking crisis. Frankly, given the incredibly fragile sentiment evident over recent weeks, the G7 needs to come up with something fairly convincing to soothe the nerves of traders and investors alike. The Fed, the BOJ and the BOE may well declare their preparedness to implement further QE, while the ECB should consider both reducing rates and announcing more LTRO. More urgent however is attempting to stem the tide of those pernicious bank runs that have accelerated in southern Europe over the past few weeks. Short of implementing a Europe-wide deposit guarantee scheme, this will require a huge injection of capital into ailing banks, especially those in Spain. However, without Germany's imprimatur, it remains unclear just where the money will come from. Although the fact that global policy-makers are weighing up their options is encouraging, they cannot afford to prevaricate for much longer. Time is in short supply.
