‘Cracks starting to appear’: how the failure of SVB has rocked European banks

As shares in their companies were tanking this week, a small group of European bank bosses sat down in London for a dinner of saffron risotto, salmon and asparagus and agreed that the market reaction to the collapse of a Californian lender was overblown.

The chief executives were adamant that investors were “underestimating” the strength of European banks’ balance sheets “in terms of liquidity, capital, earnings and asset quality”, said Davide Serra, the founder of investment boutique Algebris Investments and host of the dinner.