Fighting the crisis, the field of global banking is confronted with many difficult questions. Will banks survive or non bank financial institutions will dominate what has traditionally been defined as international banking? Will the new technology make the banker obsolete? One thing is clear “the good old days” are over and this thanks to deregulation, globalization and increasing competition from non bank sources of capital. To resist in a world inrecession, the bank business requires a mix of new technical, financial and managerial skills and many sacrifices, costs and profits reductions, unheard a decade ago. In addition, more capital injections and guarantee may be necessary to cover the enormous losses and to ensure stability. The government injections of capital and public purchases of troubled assets, the asset guarantees are some of the government responses around the world for the recovery.Even the traditional European universal bank model is now under considerable pressure to change. Universal banks are forced to reconsider downsizing large personnel rolls, shedding numerous branches, seeking for best talents, be it through mergers or by firing redundant personnel and new technology acquisitions.The advent of the Euro, now at the 10th anniversary, eliminated an important source of easy profits for speculators and protected better against crisis inside the Euro zone. Facing up the new challenges and reality, the recently integrated European countries are making serious efforts to improve competitiveness, seeking out new strategies in order to adopt earlier the Euro.