At the end of a disturbing week for the world financial system, there has been no great chaos. Credit Suisse is still open, and the United States has also calmed down a bit after Silicon Valley Bank, a major financier of American start-ups, closed earlier this week. On Friday night, however, several major banks had to pledge $30 billion in support to a regional bank from San Francisco called First Republic, in the form of special deposits. After that, share prices on the stock markets turned back stronger. This shows that the shock is deep.

Patrick Bernau

Editor responsible for economy and "value" of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

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Dennis Kremer

Editor in the "Wert" section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

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This weekend, the Swiss authorities are working to persuade UBS to take over Credit Suisse in order to prevent worse. According to media reports, this is the "Plan A", and billions in state aid are now also under discussion.

After the great financial crisis of 2008, something like this should not happen again. The banks should be sufficiently regulated, failure should be possible without major upheavals. So how was it possible that the bankruptcy of Silicon Valley Bank, previously known only to insiders, made investors, supervisors and politicians so nervous in distant Europe? That one sentence from a major shareholder was enough to drive the once proud Credit Suisse to the brink of collapse? And why is it always the banks that worry the world so much?

Banks are different

There is a short answer to all these questions: because banking is fundamentally different from the rest of the economy. Banks have a characteristic that hardly any other industry knows: their entire business model is basically based on the fact that they will still exist tomorrow.

The favorite baker closes his shop in a few days? That's a pity, but today you can still buy a loaf of bread. The doctor closes next week? This is unfortunate because it also means losing his knowledge of the history of the disease – but today he can still write a prescription. And the department store may be insolvent in two months? Then it could be difficult with the warranty, but the pants are not worse. Even the trouser supplier can still send his packages now, maybe he insists on advance payment.

It's different with the banks. They are, to put it exaggeratedly, a kind of time machine: Anyone who could actually afford a house or a business start-up in many years can do so with a bank loan today. And if you have money that you don't need now, but you will need in the future, you will carry it to the bank. But this only works if the bank still exists tomorrow. This is precisely why everyone reacts so sensitively to even the slightest doubt about their solidity.

Although the banking business is at first glance purely driven by numbers, in the end it is based on a primordial human trait that cannot be expressed in numbers: on the trust that tomorrow is still there what you have paid in today. If this confidence is disturbed, the crisis is difficult to stop. "Trust is the beginning of everything" – with this sentence once advertised, it is no wonder, a bank.