Europe bank's exposure to the eurozone debt crisis has increased to €300bn (£263bn).

The epicenter of sovereign risk has been Greece, which generated the first of four waves of spillover to European banks. The analysis suggests that, first, spillovers on European bank exposures to the Greek sovereign have amounted to almost €60 billion (Figure 1.17). Second, as sovereign risks spread to other governments, the spillovers to banks have mounted. If the sovereign stresses in Ireland and Portugal are included, the total spillover rises to €80 billion. Third, the governments in Belgium, Italy, and Spain have also come under market pressure; incorporating credit risks from these sovereigns into the analysis further raises the total estimated spillover, to about €200 billion. Fourth, bank asset prices in the high-spread euro area have fallen in concert with sovereign stresses, leading to a rise in the credit risk of interbank exposures; including those exposures increases the total estimated spillover to €300 billion overall. Although these numbers are based on market assessments of credit risk, which may reflect a degree of overshooting, the underlying problems that they highlight are real.

Pacific Investment Management Co.’s Mohamed A. El-Erian said organizations such as the International Monetary Fund need to act with European banks at risk of being engulfed in the region’s sovereign-debt crisis.

Josef Ackermann, the CEO of Deutsche Bank, has said that the current market volatility reminds him of the days immediately preceding the collapse of Lehman Brothers. He also blasted the IMF, saying that calls for the mandatory recapitalization of European banks are "not helpful."

It has been a mere three years since the collapse of the investment bank Lehman Brothers plunged the world into a deep financial crisis. But now, with economic indicators offering little room for optimism, a new crisis may be on the horizon.