Why Europe's banks tremble - Martin Walker

``... one key reason is that the reform process in the United States led banks to write off around $1 trillion, while their European counterparts wrote off less than half that amount. The U.S. banks were made to come clean. The Europeans weren't. One way to look at the consequences is to see what the markets think. In 2007, of the world's 25 top banks the Europeans had almost half of the sector's market capitalization and were worth about $1.5 trillion. Today, they have about 18 percent, with a market cap of $492 billion.''