Matt King, credit stategist at Citigroup, said Italian banks lost €160bn in deposits last year and Spanish banks lost €100bn, based on the ECB's Target2 payments data. The pattern seen in Greece, Ireland, and Portugal -- where deposits have together fallen 52pc -- is that a haemorrhage is hard to halt once it begins. "Capital flight, is a self-reinforcing process. It will stop only once there is decisive policy intervention. The longer investors have to wait, the more decisive it will need to be," he said