European lenders have lost nearly a quarter of their market value since January 1st 2016, totalling nearly $250 billion, as global uncertainty shakes investors.

This year has been one of the worst in financial history, with rock-bottom oil prices, further market volatility in China and the pressure of a European referendum in Britain impacting negatively on global markets – and it seems these factors are causing investors to sell off shares in Europe’s biggest lenders.

Worries of bad debts from cheap European cash lie under then surface of banks’ ‘recovery’ over the last eight years, and the failure of banks to negotiate the crash of 2008 still resonates for many investors, who are choosing to withdraw in case of another similar failure. One strategist was quoted by Reuters as saying: “there are no buying signals in the banking sector. Why own them?”

10/02/2016