Banking crisis in the United States: Europe fears contagion from Silicon Valley Bank

The activities in Europe of Silicon Valley Bank, the 16th US bank now closed and placed under the administration of the authorities, which guarantee all deposits,

to provoke the wind of fear that they are raising.

Also if the fall of the New York Signature Bank is taken into account.

The bank,

in much of Europe, has only

in the old continent: in Germany, Denmark, the United Kingdom (which will pass into the hands of HSBC in exchange for one pound sterling, the price of a pack of bags garbage) and Sweden.

But European governments are already studying the impact that its fall may have in sectors such as the

or pension funds.

Combination of logos of European banks affected by the crisis in the United States.

Photo: AFP

The Bloomberg agency reported this Monday that it had managed to identify a handful of companies, especially in the technology sector, that

and pointed to the Polish video game manufacturer Huuuge.

Another form of involvement would be that of the largest Swedish pension fund, which would be

But that exposure would be limited to $605 million.

Despite this limited activity in Europe, the stock markets of the old continent fell sharply because they fear that Silicon Valley Bank

.

Frankfurt, Paris and London lost almost 3%, Madrid was close to 3.5% and Rome exceeded 5%.

The logo of the German Commerzbank on a building in Frankfurt.

Photo: Amelie Querfurth / AFP

Among the banks, the correction suffered by the German

stood out , which lost 13.0%.

Also suffering considerable losses were the German financial giant

(-4.3%), the French BNP Paribas (-6.2%) and its compatriot Société Générale (-5.8%), the Spanish Santander (-7.2 %) and BBVA (-8.0%).

Italian banking was heading in the same direction.

dollar, shelter

The euro also fell

a bit against the dollar from 1,069 on Friday to 1,067 at noon on Monday.

The US currency

 for European investors.

The price of gold also rose and the interest that European national Treasuries had to offer to place their bonds fell, another symptom of a fear movement that seeks safe assets.

A source from

 in the European Commission, who was already close to the command posts in the Executive arm of the European Union when the financial crisis of 2008 broke out, said this Monday: "Let us remember that in 2008 the European Union saw the fall of Lehmann Brothers and his first reaction was to demand that the United States

so that it would not stain Europe.

But Europe

.

Silicon Valley Bank is not Lehmann Brothers nor does it have as many activities in Europe, but it seems clear that it

On Monday morning, the European authorities saw how US regional banks

more than 50% of their share price as soon as Wall Street opened.

If each of them can be considered small,

.

Shareholders and depositors flee small banks for the safety of larger ones, a move not seen in Europe, where

For the European media, the implications of the fall of Silicon Valley Bank are

so far this year.

The entire online opening of the economic 'Financial Times'

.

The next few days will decide if it was

or if the northern powers got into another financial crisis for not having closely followed the risks taken by their banks.

The Eurozone Finance Ministers, meeting this Monday in Brussels,

.

The messages were all similar: there is no risk, there is no exposure, there is no reason to be afraid, much less panic.

Brussels, special for

look also

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