The troubles experienced by Italian bank Unicredit in completing its rights issue highlight the difficulties that European banks are having in raising capital, according to panellists at the Bloomberg Sovereign Debt Conference in New York yesterday.

Last year's stress tests by the European Banking Authority found that the sector needed to raise €115bn in capital. This month Unicredit launched a rights issue to raise €7.5bn and the Italian bank's shares fell 50% after the terms were announced - although they have since gone up.