The Bank of England keeps track on Credit Suisse's issues.

The Bank of England has been in touch with Swiss authorities and Credit Suisse over the crisis at the lender. Investors are concerned about the state of Credit Suisse, which plunged 24% to a record low after it said it had found "weakness" in its financial reporting. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority sought to calm those fears, saying they were ready to help Credit Suisse if necessary. Earlier, fear of weakness at such a big international player had put pressure on banking shares around the world, with the Stoxx Europe banking share index tumbling 7%. In the UK, the FTSE 100 fell 3.8% or 293 points - the biggest one-day drop since the early days of the pandemic in 2020.

Germany's Dax dropped more than 3% and France's Cac 40 index closed down roughly 3.5%. In Spain, the Ibex 35 ended more than 4% lower. In the US, shares in both small and large banks were hit, helping to push the Dow down almost 0.9%, while the S&P 500 fell 0.7%. The Nasdaq closed roughly flat for the day."The problems in Credit Suisse once more raise the question whether this is the beginning of a global crisis or just another 'idiosyncratic' case," wrote Andrew Kenningham of Capital Economics.
SVB, a US bank that specialised in lending to technology companies, was shut down by US regulators on Friday in the largest failure of a US bank since 2008. Signature Bank also went bust, and fears have persisted that other banks could face similar troubles. Credit Suisse, founded in 1856, has faced a string of scandals in recent years, including money laundering charges and other issues. It lost money in 2021 and again in 2022 - its worst year since the financial crisis of 2008 - and has warned it does not expect to be profitable until 2024. The bank's disclosure on Tuesday of "material weakness" in its financial reporting controls renewed concerns, prompting major investor the Saudi National Bank to say it would not inject further funds into the Swiss lender.

Shares in the bank ended the day down 24%, as other banks rushed to reduce their exposure to the firm and prime ministers in Spain and France spoke out in an attempt to ease fears. Bloomberg reported that BNP Paribas had stopped accepting certain deals, if Credit Suisse was the counter party. The most important details in this text are that SVB was forced to sell US government bonds due to the US Federal Reserve increasing borrowing costs to try to curb inflation. This has caused many banks to be sitting on potential losses, but the change in value would not typically be a problem unless other pressures force the firms to sell the holdings. Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said that banks sitting on large unrealised losses in their bond portfolios might not have sufficient buffers if there is a fast withdrawal of deposits. The biggest players are judged not to be at risk due to their large capital and stable deposits.