Europe’s financial sector reacts to Ukraine crisis with cyber-attack warnings

Europe’s financial sector was rocked on Thursday after Russia invaded Ukraine, with Allianz announcing it had frozen its exposure to Russian government bonds and British lender Lloyds saying it was on “high alert” for attacks. cybernetics

Deutsche Bank said it has contingency plans in place, and European officials have warned that a new round of sanctions is on the way.

Shares of major banks plunged this morning. A European bank stock index tumbled 7.5%, a sharper drop than the more than 4% drop recorded by the Euro Stoxx index.

Banks with significant operations in Russia were particularly hard hit, with Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International plunging 16% and Société Générale sinking 8.6%.

Shares in UniCredit, whose Russian branch is one of the country’s biggest creditors, tumbled as much as 9% before triggering an automatic suspension of trading.

European banks are the most exposed to Russia in the world — especially those in France, Italy and Spain, which far exceed the exposure of US banks, data from the BIS (Bank for International Settlements) show.