(Reuters) – European Central Bank supervisors see no contagion for euro zone banks from recent turmoil, a source said on Friday, after U.S. lenders threw First Republic Bank a $30 billion lifeline and tapped record amounts from the Federal Reserve.
Large U.S. banks injected the funds into the San Francisco-based bank on Thursday, swooping in to rescue the lender caught up in a widening crisis triggered by the collapse of two other mid-size U.S. lenders over the past week.
DEVELOPMENTS
* First Republic Bank received $30 billion in deposits from several big banks as part of a rescue package.
* Despite the rescue, First Republic’s shares were indicated 12% lower in Friday’s pre-market trade after the bank suspended its dividend payout. Its Frankfurt-listed shares rose as much as 5%.
* Banks sought record amounts of emergency liquidity from the Federal Reserve over recent days in the wake of the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, which in turn helped undo months of central bank efforts to shrink the size of its balance sheet, Fed data showed on Thursday.
* Credit Suisse said it was taking “decisive action” to strengthen its liquidity by exercising its option to borrow from the Swiss National Bank up to 50 billion Swiss francs ($54 billion). But its shares resumed their decline on Friday, and more than $200 million in net outflows left its U.S. and European managed funds after March 13, according to Morningstar Direct.
* ECB supervisors meeting on Friday saw no contagion to euro zone banks from the market turmoil that has engulfed Credit Suisse and some U.S. banks, a source said.
* The ECB’s decision to raise interest rates on Thursday signals strong confidence in the solidity of European banks, French ECB policymaker Francois Villeroy de Galhau said.
* China’s central bank will cut the amount of cash that banks must hold as reserves for the first time this year to release liquidity and support the economy.
* Japan’s government must work closely with the central bank and overseas authorities in the wake of banking problems in the West, Japan’s top financial diplomat said on Friday, adding that the Japanese economy was stable.
MARKETS
* European stock indexes rose in early trading on Friday, extending a recovery from the previous day as fears about a banking crisis eased slightly after top U.S. authorities and banks took action to rescue First Republic Bank. The U.S. dollar slipped and U.S. stock index futures were mixed.
* Banking worries send U.S. markets on dizzying ride.
(Compiled by Sam Holmes, Kirsten Donovan)