“I don’t see any risk of contagion, so there is no specific alert,” Bruno Le Maire said Monday, March 13 on France Info. The Minister of Economy and Finance wanted to be reassuring, a few days after the bankruptcy of two American banks, SVB and Signature Bank. “We have banks which are solid”, “a banking system which is solid” and “a liquidity ratio which is high”, affirmed Bruno Le Maire, adding that French banking establishments had “very diversified sectors of activity “.
French banks “are not exposed to a single business sector” like Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which was almost exclusively exposed to the new technology sector, the French minister pointed out.
SVB, which could no longer cope with the massive withdrawals of its customers, was closed on Friday by the American authorities. The latter announced on Sunday a series of measures to reassure individuals and businesses about the solidity of the American banking system and will in particular guarantee the withdrawal of all deposits from SVB.
They will also allow access to all the deposits of another establishment, Signature Bank, which was closed automatically by the regulator, to everyone’s surprise.
