Banking regulators are drawing up plans to ensure that they have a true picture of Europe’s fragile banking sector following the escalation of the sovereign-debt crisis.

The move comes as José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, added his voice to calls for EU member states to act in a “co-ordinated” way to recapitalise vulnerable banks.

Barroso, speaking in an interview on the internet video site YouTube, said: “We are now proposing member states to have a co-ordinated action to recapitalise banks and so to get rid of toxic assets they may have.”

Barroso’s remarks echo those made over the past few days by Olli Rehn, the European commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, and Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor.

Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s president, said that he would discuss bank recapitalisation with Merkel when he visits Berlin on 9 October. Other leaders are also expected to discuss the matter informally over the coming days.

If a plan emerges, EU leaders might try to reach a deal at their summit in Brussels on 17-18 October.

Today, a spokesman for the Commission said that a “negative evolution on the financial markets” meant that regulators required a newer assessment of banks than that provided by the EU’s bank stress-tests published in July.

Those revealed that nine banks needed urgent recapitalisation and a further 16 gave cause for concern. He said that this new assessment was “already happening”.

“The EBA [European Banking Authority, the EU’s banking supervisory body] is looking at the situation every week with national regulators,” he said.

“National regulators are in contact with all banks registered in member states.”

He added: “It would be pointless for member states to act in a bilateral or unilateral way; we need to do that with a universal approach. We now have to work out what that approach should be.”

The latest moves to shore up banks come as the long process of approving changes to the flexibility and firepower of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), the eurozone’s bail-out fund, enters its final stages.

The Dutch parliament approved the changes yesterday leaving Malta and Slovakia as the last two countries to ratify the deal struck at the summit of eurozone heads of state and government on 21 July. It would increase the EFSF’s flexibility by allowing it to buy bonds on the secondary market, grant precautionary credit lines and recapitalise banks – as well as increase its lending capacity to €440 billion.