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Banking stocks globally have been battered since Silicon Valley
Bank collapsed and Credit Suisse was forced to tap $54 billion
in central bank funding, raising questions about other
weaknesses in the financial system.
"We don't have any information indicating the European banks to
be vulnerable," Wunsch, also governor of the Belgian central
bank BNB, told Belgian news paper L'Echo in an interview
published on Saturday.
"If you look at the Belgian banks, they are more solid than the
average of European banks. That's why it is very hard to imagine
a repeat of the financial crisis".
Wunsch said it was crucial to distinguish between Europe and the
U.S., where a softer application of capitalisation rules had
enabled some regional banks to run up higher interest rate risks
than they would have been allowed to in Europe.
"It is important to make a distinction between Europe, where
banks are subject to certain rules, and the U.S. - with Credit
Suisse, in my opinion, being a case apart," he noted.
"We do neither see a risk of contagion nor a risk of instability
if we look at the figures from a rational perspective," the
central bank governor said.
Asked about the future of Credit Suisse, Wunsch said he only saw
a "very low" likelihood that the bank might go bankrupt.
"For one, according to the public figures its situation is not
bad, in itself, and, secondly, the Swiss authorities would
intervene if necessary as it is a bank of systemic importance,"
he said.
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold; Editing by David Holmes)
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