On the face of it, banks are feeling the pinch, charging each other high rates in the interbank lending market.

That means some banks are effectively paying to hold cash with the ECB rather than risk lending it out, and analysts say it reflects the limited access that some banks have to the interbank market.

The signs are that the eurozone leaders, and Gordon Brown, meeting yesterday, are prepared to take action to guarantee lending between banks.

To unfreeze the credit markets, the G7 governments could have agreed to underwrite lending between banks across national borders, by using central banks to act as joint counterparties.

Share prices rebounded around the world and frozen interbank lending markets showed some signs of thawing.