Banks under pressure

Below is a series of charts of US, UK, German and French banks. It's pretty clear, that the French and German banks is under a lot of pressure, but both the UK and US banks is following close behind. If one or more of these banks goes under or we have a run at one or more banks, that could freeze the banking sector once again.


The European banks has a major exposure to Government bonds from the PIIGS countries. The major problem is Greece, which once again hasn't lived up to the demands from the IMF and the EU. The latest rhetoric from Germany does spell trouble for Greece and we might see the Greece Government throw the towel into the ring soon. How the EU is going to solve the problems that will cause I don't know, but I will not be surprised to see Greece leave the Euro, default on its debt and devalue its new Drachma. The question is of cause if Portugal, Spain, Italy, Ireland and Belgium follow... No matter how many countries that might leave the Euro, the banks will be hard hit. They are already hard hit. If the European bank mark-to-market their Government debt exposure, some might already be bankrupt.


The outlook right now is not good. We might still ride of the storm, but the risks should be clear and I do think that many of the charts below show, that the risk is real...


The French banks is testing or have already broken below their 2009 lows. The same is the case for Commerzbank. These banks might be serious threat to the European banking system, but if one or more goes down, that could freeze the global banking system.


I don't want to paint a picture of hell on earth, but some of the European banks is a threat to the global economy at this point.

Bank of America (US)

Citigroup (US)

Goldman Sachs (US)

J.P Morgan (US)

Morgan Stanley (US)

Barclays (UK)

HSBC (UK)

Royal Bank of Scotland - RBS (UK)

Commerzbank (Germany)

Deutsche Bank (Germany)

Credit Agricole (France)

Societ Generale (France)