Office building at Santander in London.
Luke Macgregor Bloomberg via Getty Images
Spanish lender Santander Bank The Swiss giant overshadowed UBS As the largest Bank of Continental Europe, according to market capitalization, like the American tariffs, they move through the bruised banking sector of the region.
UBS – whose participation deeply collapsed after the announcement of the US President Donald Trump and mutual obligations for Washington's trade contractors on April 2 – had a market capitalization of 79.5 Swiss francs (97.23 billion) from Wednesday of closing, according to the factet, with Banco Santander at 91.3 billion euros (103.78 billion).
According to LSEG data, the shares of two banks have diverged in recent months, with the Swiss lender dropped 17.2% a year, while Banco Santander gained almost 35%.
Both banks, along with a wider banking sector in Europe, have suffered since the imposition of a protectiveist commercial policy
Washington imposed 20% of tariffs on imports from the European Union, but reduced them to 10% as part of the 90-day break announced by Trump on April 9.
Switzerland – who is not an EU member – faces a steep 31% fee after emergency, and Trump's administration also threatened additional obligations in the field of imported drugs. This can bring a blow to the Swiss pharmaceutical industry, which “grew” In the fourth quarter and “significantly contributed” to the export of the country during this period.
To put it more, the European Union banks received strengthening after the announcement The initiative of the Rebelm of the European Union In March, which is to loosen the regional fiscal principles and launch further loans to increase defense expenditure.
Exposure in the USA
The two largest lenders of continental Europe have very different exhibitions on the American market.
Banco Santander is the fifth largest car lender in the country and develops about Last partnership with Verizon telecommunications giant. Nevertheless, he only registered about 9% of his total profits in 2024 of the United States.
European banks
Meanwhile, the United States is a key market of the Lucrative global UBS property management department, with about half of the Swiss lender's assets invested in the wider region of America last year, in accordance with his annual report.
UBS perspectives were also tired of the protection of uncertainty surrounding the potential new – and more steep – capital requirements from the Swiss authorities. This is his expansion after absorbing the sunken domestic mutual Koreza Suisse, from which he also inherited a significant presence in the USA. Lender Expecting To get further transparency of these guidelines next month.
The profitability of UBS can also be influenced by the strong Swiss franc – historically safe assets of marina during the market confusion – which was appreciated by about 8% compared to the American dollar since the latest tariffs were applied.
Appreciating Switzerland – whose local forces of commercial groups marked as harmful to exports, even before the entry into force of the tariffs – along with inflation depression in the country, observe further defensive percentage reductions, which have already been reduced to just 0.25% in the march.
For comparison, the European Central Bank should also cut its key deposit rate by a quarter of a point, when it is later on Thursday, although it will bring up to 2.25%.
The potential reduction of the interest rate would occur after the ECB said in March that his monetary policy “became significantly less restrictive” – in the signaling some analysts interpreted as an indicating restriction when it comes to further lowering of the feet.
The decreases in domestic interest rates usually charges the revenues of local lenders from loans.