‘Cracks beginning to seem’: how the failure of SVB has rocked European banks

As shares of their corporations had been tanking this week, a small group of European financial institution bosses sat down in London for a dinner of saffron risotto, salmon and asparagus and agreed that the market response to the collapse of a Californian lender was overblown.

The chief executives had been adamant that buyers had been “underestimating” the power of European banks’ stability sheets “when it comes to liquidity, capital, earnings and asset high quality”, mentioned Davide Serra, the founding father of funding boutique Algebris Investments and host of the dinner.

Europe’s banks “are the strongest they’ve been for 30 years — if ever there was a second to panic, it’s not now”, Serra added.

Till US federal regulators took over Silicon Valley Financial institution final week, after rising rates of interest blew a gap in its stability sheet, some bankers in Europe had been solely dimly conscious of the tech-focused financial institution’s 40-year existence.

Since then the fallout has been swift and brutal as buyers dumped European banking shares.

“The rise in charges has been so fast that you just see cracks beginning to seem,” mentioned Kevin Thozet, a member of the funding committee of French asset supervisor Carmignac. 

“Danger administration at giant European banks could be very totally different from that of regional US banks. The dangers are lesser, as a result of they’re largely lined and hedged. However all the identical, the place has that danger been handed on to? We don’t know that but.”

Credit score Suisse was the catalyst for a lot of the ache that rippled via Europe, from France’s BNP Paribas and Société Générale to Spain’s BBVA and Britain’s Barclays.

The Swiss financial institution — already underneath intense stress following a collection of scandals, deposit outflows and a radical restructuring plan — was hammered after a high shareholder dominated out additional funding.

The ache in European banking shares was solely halted when Credit score Suisse agreed a SFr50bn central financial institution lifeline on Wednesday night time.

By Friday morning, banking indices had been again in optimistic territory for the second day operating — stopping the worst two-day rout since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

“This week’s rout of European financial institution shares doesn’t appear to make a lot sense,” mentioned one European regulatory official, as governments from Paris to Berlin referred to as on buyers to maintain a cool head and rejected notions of a system wide-problem.

“It seems extra a query of common confidence, quite than a selected downside that buyers are targeted on.”

However the issues at Credit score Suisse are removed from over and the episode has added to warning indicators for the business. By the tip of Friday, the European Stoxx 600 banks index had misplaced one other 2.6 per cent, and was down 15 per cent for the week.

SVB’s collapse adopted the autumn in worth of its long-dated Treasury bonds and underlined the sudden penalties of long-awaited rate of interest hikes. Buyers say that the pensions disaster within the UK, which was triggered by spiking gilt yields, was an early warning signal of the hazards forward.

Like SVB, European banks additionally maintain giant bond portfolios, the paper worth of which has fallen as a result of charge rises. However a much smaller proportion of those are designated as “out there on the market” on their books, that means, not like bonds that are being held to maturity, their values must be adjusted. 

European banks have 6 per cent of belongings invested in “out there on the market” portfolios whereas their complete investments make up 18 per cent of their complete stability sheets, analysts at ABN Amro estimated. That in comparison with 14 per cent of “out there on the market” investments at SVB and investments as a share of belongings of 57 per cent. 

“This could make them much less susceptible to sharp valuation adjustments,” the ABN Amro analysts mentioned. 

As well as, so-called unrealised losses from such valuation adjustments are taken into consideration in capital requirement calculations and the way they’re utilized in Europe, the place all banks no matter measurement are topic to emphasize assessments and strict supervisory and liquidity calls for. Within the US, a 2018 rollback of some regulatory necessities underneath president Donald Trump exempted the likes of SVB, or some banks with belongings of as much as $250bn, from such scrutiny. 

The construction of SBV’s deposits, which had been concentrated within the tech sector and 96 per cent uninsured, exacerbated its issues.

“Total, European banks depend on diversified funding sources, with sticky family deposits accounting for 30 per cent of all liabilities,” analysts at credit standing company Normal and Poor’s mentioned, including that promoting bond portfolios and realising losses can be a “final resort”. 

“I’m probably not fearful about asset-quality danger for European banks,” mentioned Jérôme Legras, head of analysis at Axiom Various Investments, a Paris-based financials specialist with $2.2bn in belongings underneath administration. “They’ve unused provisions from Covid and lending standards has been fairly tight. The price of danger will rise however from very low ranges. It’s not an enormous concern.” 

Frustration on the extreme correction this week was obvious. One European financial institution chief government mentioned buyers had failed to understand how a lot the sector had modified since Lehman Brothers’ collapse in 2008. 

“We have now between 5 to eight occasions as a lot liquidity,” the chief government mentioned. “There isn’t the sector-wide illness that was the US subprime mortgage downside of 2008.”

Nevertheless, and regardless of the arrogance of many regulators and bankers, Credit score Suisse stays a right away danger. Information on Wednesday night time that it had secured liquidity was “a serious reduction”, one of many European Central Financial institution’s 26 governing council members mentioned. 

That enabled the ECB to go forward with pre-signalled plans to lift its deposit charge by half a share level to three per cent on Thursday, the best degree for the reason that 2008 monetary disaster. “It stopped the panic,” mentioned the council member. “It can purchase a while whereas the Swiss discover a answer.”

Nevertheless, if an answer can’t be discovered, a number of senior bankers in Europe and Switzerland mentioned the respite may very well be shortlived — for Credit score Suisse and for the sector.

“Buyers are on the lookout for the weak spot. In Europe, that’s Credit score Suisse,” mentioned one banker in Paris. “At this stage, it’s about status quite than something goal to do with their numbers.”

Further reporting by Olaf Storbeck in Frankfurt and Laura Noonan in London