As Deutsche Bank executives watched a frenzied sell-off in its shares and debt on Monday, Marcus Schenck found a way to take the sting out. The bank’s chief financial officer had received an email from its accountants, who had reviewed the books and expressed confidence in Deutsche’s ability to comfortably pay back its debt. Making this information public could end the bloodletting.

Hours later, Deutsche issued the good news. Yet for the next 24 hours, headlines worldwide screamed with clangers like “Deutsche insists it can pay all its debts”. Executives were horrified.

On Tuesday, officials tried again to bolster confidence by tweeting a staff memo from John Cryan, the co-chief executive, stating that Deutsche was “rock solid” — but this only seemed to worry investors more. German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble’s comment that he was “not worried” about Deutsche did not help either. The shares kept falling, losing another 5 per cent on Tuesday to hit a 30-year low.