Global bank stocks shiver amid US credit risk fears

FEAR OVER CREDIT quality in US regional banks rippled through markets on Friday, dragging global financial stocks lower and reviving memories of the crisis of confidence that shook sentiment just over two years ago.

- ALUN JOHN, ANKUR BANERJEE & MANYA SAINI

The selloff hit Wall Street's main indexes, with futures pointing to a weaker open, deepening investor anxiety that was already heightened by escalating US-China trade tensions and renewed worries about the global economic outlook.

The banking sector's exposure to two recent US auto bankruptcies has rekindled concerns about lending standards more than two years after Silicon Valley Bank's failure, when high interest rates drove paper losses on its bonds and sparked a global bank stocks rout.