PARIS (Reuters) – The French government is vigilant about the banking sector, currently heckled by the setbacks of several establishments, but the situation is “very different” from that of 2008, the year marked by the most serious financial crisis since 1929, said Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne on Wednesday.
“We are very vigilant but the situation is very different from what we experienced in 2008,” said the head of government in the Senate.
“Since then, many prudential rules have been adopted for all banks in the euro zone,” she recalled.
The banking sector has been shaken on the stock market since the announcement at the end of last week of the difficulties of the American bank Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which has since been closed.
On Wednesday, it was the announcement by the main shareholder of Credit Suisse of its inability to provide new financial assistance to the Swiss bank which sowed a new wind of panic.
The second Swiss bank is struggling to recover from a series of scandals which has considerably damaged the confidence of investors and customers.
Elisabeth Borne told the Senate that the Minister of Finance, Bruno Le Maire, “will have contact with his Swiss counterpart in the coming hours”.
Recalling that Credit Suisse is not subject to European banking regulation, she felt that the situation around the bank should be resolved by the Swiss authorities.
(Report Leigh Thomas, written by Blandine Hénault, edited by Kate Entringer)
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