Heavy losses are recorded in the European stock markets – but also the Greek one – in the wake of the capital adequacy problems of the American Silicon Valley bank that sank the New York stock exchange yesterday.

Silicon Valley Bank on Thursday announced a surprise $1.75 billion in new capital to bolster its capital position. The bank’s shares collapsed, plunging more than 60%.

According to Goldman Sachs there is no systemic risk.

Yesterday’s big sell-off in US banking stocks was carried over to Europe today, with shares of some of its biggest banks posting their biggest declines in 9 months.

The pan-European Stoxx banking index fell more than 4% and posted its biggest daily losses since early last June, with shares of major institutions such as HSBC and Deutsche Bank down 4.5% and 7.9%, respectively. The share of the Italian banks UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo also fell significantly.

The global plunge in banking stocks was triggered by a Silicon Valley bank, SVB Financial Group, which finances technology companies, which was forced to raise new capital after selling bonds at a loss of 1.8 billion. dollars to cover the withdrawals of deposits from its customers.

Neil Wilson, chief analyst at Markets.com, said the episode could be “the whip that breaks the camel’s back” for banks amid concerns about the fallout from continued interest rate hikes and the fragile US economy. .

Investors in SVB were concerned about whether the capital increase would be sufficient, given the deteriorating performance of many tech startup companies the bank serves. The bank’s chief executive, Gregory Baker, spoke to customers to reassure them that their money was safe at the bank, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter.

Some startups, however, advised their founders to withdraw their money from SVB as a precaution, according to the same sources.