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As the banking crisis lurches from one sore point to another, new problems emerge.
It's like a game of whack-a-mole.
But frantically putting out financial market spot fires is better than a financial contagion.
Two weeks ago, US regulators made a desperate pitch to avoid a nation-wide bank run by making Silicon Valley Bank depositors "whole".
Signature Bank and First Republic also showed signs of financial stress and, again, help was made available – including financial assistance by Wall Street investment banks in the latter's case.
However, there are thousands of regional banks across the United States, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen made it clear last week that some uninsured depositors would not receive any help in the case of community bank collapse.
The fear is higher net wealth customers, with large deposits not wholly covered by insurance, will abandon the regional banks for the bigger players on Wall Street.
Regulators are closely watching bank deposits and CNN reported that an unnamed US official had said "uninsured deposit outflows have slowed, stopped or in some cases reversed among all institutions in focus right now."
As with any crisis, the landscape can change quickly.
Credit Suisse's unhappy shotgun marriage
Last weekend, the Swiss government brokered a shotgun marriage between the country's biggest and second-biggest banks to save the latter from a crisis of confidence.
In the days prior, Credit Suisse's share price had crashed and other European banks indicated they would require up-front payments in their dealings with the bank.
It pointed to a drop in trust and confidence between European banks.
At a weekend press conference, Credit Suisse chair Axel Lehmann told reporters the "latest developments that emanated from the banks in the US hit us at the most unfavourable moment."
"The accelerating loss of confidence and the escalation over the last few days have made it clear that Credit Suisse can no longer exist in its current form.
"We are happy to have found a solution, which I'm convinced will bring lasting stability and security for clients, staff, financial markets and to Switzerland."
Part of the solution, though, was to wipe out the bank's hybrid bond holders.
That is, the Additional Tier 1 (AT1) bond owners.
The owners of these securities bought them knowing in the event of a financial disaster, their securities would be either converted to shares or written down.
In this case, a combined $17 billion worth was written down, in a wipe-out for those investors.
On the other hand, shareholders will suffer losses but not a total loss.
It's controversial because shareholders normally follow bond holders in terms of access to returns as a company is wound-up.
It's so controversial that the European Central Bank and Bank of England were quick to distance themselves from the Swiss authorities' actions, while some of the aggrieved bondholders are pondering legal action.
There's even been talk of recalling Switzerland's parliament to consider challenging to parts of the deal.
It's not surprising then that shares in AT1 bond holder HSBC fell heavily on Monday.
The stock recouped some of those losses on Tuesday.
'Hunt and destroy'
Analysts say financial markets are now looking for other firms holding Credit Suisse debt.
"The market is playing hunt and destroy now with [perceived] weakness," Marcus Today analyst Henry Jennings said.
"Deutsche [Bank] would be one target. That would be too big to fail."
In addition, central banks across the world are working in unison to reassure banks and their customers they are standing ready to support the normal and efficient flow of cash and assets.
In practical terms, the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, the Federal Reserve and the Swiss National Bank have announced a coordinated action to enhance the provision of liquidity.
They'll do this via the standing US Dollar Liquidity Swap Line Arrangements, which will give banks daily, rather than weekly, access to US dollars.
They haven't needed it yet, but they may soon, with one key event in particular this week that could yet shake markets again.
That big financial event over the next 24 to 48 hours is the Federal Reserve's meeting to decide on its interest rate policy, with an announcement due early on Thursday morning AEDT.
The expectation is that the central bank will either choose to hike its "Federal Funds Rate" by 0.25 percentage points, or pause on its rate hikes.
But investors will also be watching for indications of how many more rate hikes Fed members expect to push through to get inflation back under control, and how those have changed since the last meeting.
Tuesday's March Reserve Bank meeting minutes confirm Australia's central bank will also consider pausing its interest rate hikes next month.
"At what point it will be appropriate to pause will be determined by the data and the board's assessment of the outlook," the minutes noted.
The central question facing global financial markets at present is whether central banks need to stop increasing interest rates in the face of banking turmoil, or if inflation represents too big a threat to even consider it as an option.
The key question facing central banks is much the same: is banking turmoil close to crashing the real economy, or is inflation still the greater threat?