Barclays: how much is enough? Is that it, then? Can we stop talking about Barclays" capital now? Chief executive Antony Jenkins will be hoping so. Tuesday's £5.8bn rights issue will go a long way towards plugging the £12.8bn capital hole the bank has identified. Retained earnings and balance sheet shrinkage will fill most of the rest. It is a big cash call, equivalent to 15 per cent of the bank's market capitalisation. But if it puts an end to the uncertainty about capital, tapping shareholders will be worth the effort. Whether £5.8bn is enough depends on the definition of enough. It is enough to fulfil the latest regulatory requirements. Barclays" leverage ratio (capital as a proportion of total assets) of 2.2 per cent falls well short of what UK regulators want. The latest plan will get the bank to its 3 per cent target by next June. And Barclays has good reasons for raising only what it needs. As it is, the bank has pushed out the date when its return on equity will beat its 11.5 per cent cost of equity by a year to 2016. Raising more equity would only push that date out further. But that does not mean capital concerns are a thing of the past. There is a range of things that could go wrong from here. Regulatory demands are far from fixed, as the latest enthusiasm for higher leverage ratios demonstrates. Earnings recovery, and hence the ability to generate capital internally, could take longer than expected - earnings forecasts for 2013 are now a fifth lower than they were two years ago. The drip-drip of conduct issues shows no sign of slowing, with another £2bn of provisions taken in the first half of 2013. And yet despite all this uncertainty, Barclays has tightened its dividend commitment with a pledge to pay more, and pay it sooner. The sugar rush of the dividend promise sweetens the bitter pill of the rights issue, but will make Mr Jenkins" life more difficult if he decides he needs more capital later. As it is, Barclays is taking money from shareholders (with the £100m of fees that entails) only to promise to give some of it back next year. Barclays has taken a big step towards answering the questions about its capital. It has done enough, for now. But it still falls short of the gold standard set by Scandinavian banks when it comes to comfort over capital levels. So while we can stop talking about Barclays" capital for the moment, do not be surprised if the conversation returns.