EU banks under threat of systemic risk after SVB collapse in US

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
15 Mar 10:14
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To reduce inflation and limit damage, experts believe that interest rates must be raised although member states will suffer.

The EU flag lies behind the SVB logo on March 12, 2023 (Reuters)

There currently seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel following Silicon Valley Bank (SVB)'s crash, and now systemic risks for European banks is increasing, according to Charles Gave, a financial expert and geopolitical analyst.

On Monday, European Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni stated that he saw no risks for Europe amid the chaos in the US.

Gave, on the other hand, told Sputnik, "In Europe, despite the reassuring words of Bruno Lemaire, the French Minister of Economy and Finance and all the finance ministers, the general slide continues on the markets, financial stocks in the lead … To reduce the very high inflation, rates must be raised, but this will hit the member states hard. Banks loaded with government bonds will suffer,"

Farewell to the dollar

With bank reserves being mainly in the form of government bonds, "this is the systemic risk: our politicians have loaded the financial sector with government bonds to hide the growing budget deficits. All this has weakened the system which is based on trust. If trust disappears, the bonds collapse," Gave continued.

However, when the current world is transforming into one that no longer relies on the dollar and is trading with other currencies instead, the US dollar is not only becoming unreliable but the US may find itself in a situation that Gave believes will not help.

"It is very difficult to stop a panic. That is why the Federal Reserve went well beyond the rules, compensating all depositors, instead of limiting itself to $250,000. There are between 10 and 20 US banks that show red flags, similar to those shown by the SVB," he added.

Europe is not the only continent affected, as the crash rattled the confidence in Asian start-ups overly reliant on US tech financing, which Wang Guanyan, an executive of a China-based startup that develops virtual-reality games, described as a reminder to "review our reliance on investment from the US".

With that in consideration, former US president Donald Trump announced that this was a sign of the times of economic downfall in the US. "Two big banks yesterday closed, that's a bad sign, that could be the beginning," he stated, referring to the banks' collapse.

America's 16th-largest bank saw 60% of its shares plunging on Friday, making it the second largest bank failure in US history following the market collapse of 2008, prompting regulators to seize its assets and halt trade on its stocks in Nasdaq.