The United States may have to follow the UK’s lead and directly recapitalize some of its banks, says BCA Research.

“Equity markets briefly celebrated today’s central bank coordinated policy easing but government shifts underway to directly support the banking sector are potentially even more important in terms of ending the financial crisis,” the firm says in a research note.

BCA reports that UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that his government plans to inject up to £50 billion into the nation’s banks in exchange for preferred shares.

At the same time, the European Union failed to come up with a concerted effort to support its banks, but did announce a set of principles for member states to deal with their banking woes on their own, BCA adds. These principles include bank recapitalization, emergency funding, and government purchases of assets from the banks. And, Spain has already announced an emergency fund to purchase bank assets, it notes.

“Thus, governments across the major countries are taking aggressive steps to directly shore up bank capital, which is a hopeful sign,” it says. “In past banking crises, massive taxpayer-backed capital injections (i.e. partial or whole nationalization) were a key ingredient in ending the turmoil. The problem with the U.S. approach, which involves purchasing troubled assets from the banks, is that it may do little to help recapitalize these institutions.”

“In the end, the U.S. may have to follow the U.K. lead and inject capital directly. The major countries may also be forced to provide a blanket guarantee for all bank liabilities before the current crisis ends,” BCA concludes.