Italy’s political crisis spooked international markets yesterday after its central bank chief warned Rome was on the cusp of losing investors’ hard-won trust, sending European and US bank shares lower as traders gauged which lenders could weather a new eurozone storm.
Italian banks were hardest hit, with the largest, UniCredit, falling 5.6 per cent. But financials across Europe also sold off: Spain’s Santander was down 5.4 per cent; France’s BNP Paribas dropped 4.5 per cent; and Germany’s Commerzbank fell 4 per cent.
The month-old Italian crisis for the first time jumped the Atlantic, sending the S&P financial index 3.6 per cent lower in midday trading, with some of Wall Street’s biggest banks — including JPMorgan, Citigroup and Bank of America — all down more than 4 per cent.