Even before the European Union puts the region's banks through the mill for the third time, the market has already made up its mind which institutions to avoid, with the spreads between the top and bottom banks smashing previous records last week.

This chart, produced by analysts at Citi, shows that the spread between what buyers of bank stock were prepared to pay was at the widest point in history last week -- dwarfing the previous record set in 2008 when Lehman Brothers collapsed.