The largest banks in the eurozone could be hurt if various funds, insurance and clearing houses withdraw their funds or face a liquidity problem. This conclusion was made by the corresponding study of the ECB, published yesterday. The subject of this study was the risks posed to ordinary banks by so-called shadow banks, such as funds and various other financial sector companies that provide financing in one way or another. Similarly, the risks posed by systemic banks to shadow banks. The survey results show that the 13 most important banks in the euro area, including eight European banks with a significant global presence, are exposed to this risk both in terms of their assets, such as loans, and in terms of their liabilities. such as deposits. According to the ECB, the biggest risk it has identified in its study is the possibility that funds decide to withdraw their funds, deposits, etc. from banks. They account for 13% of the liabilities collected by all traditional banks, and the largest banks have an even higher percentage. This could happen if shadow banks – or, in the language of the regulators, financial intermediaries – themselves experience large capital outflows or a loss of confidence in the bank.

The ECB warns that a massive outflow of funds from the shadow banking system will lead to a serious crisis.

As the ECB usually emphasizes, “this type of financing can be strongly affected by the credit quality of the banks that receive it. So it could maximize the funding problems that banks will face if the quality of their fundamentals is called into question.” In the same way, according to the ECB, if systemic banks have problems, they will transfer the crisis to shadow banks. As he emphasizes, “if any bank or any group of these banks faces pressure and a funding problem, it will have serious consequences, since the ability of a significant part of these financial intermediaries to manage liquidity and market risks will be affected.” It should be noted that the ECB used confidentially collected data as the banking supervisor of the euro area. However, he did not name any particular bank. The systemic banks of the Eurozone are BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, BPCE, Credit Agricole, ING, Santander, Societe Generale and UniCredit.