European banks and the price of safety

“Greeceisnotecb Switzerland,” quipped an analyst on March 20th after the Greek central-bank governor assured investors his country’s banks would not suffer from the implosion of Credit Suisse the weekend before. Investors are anxious that troubles could contaminate euro-zone lenders. Their share prices have sunk since March 9th and are still volatile.That is a disappointment. After being struck by the global financial crisis of 2007-09 and the sovereign-debt crises shortly after, the euro zone’s big banks were brought under the supervision of the European Central Bank (). As rules were toughened and dud assets flushed, banks became boring but more resilient. Now, “it seems the market is sifting through one balance-sheet after another”, frets a mover and shaker. Three risks stand out.