European banking system still segmented along national lines

A central bank has a crucial role to play in a financial crisis. But the ECB’s role in the eurozone is even more “central” than that of the Federal Reserve or the Bank of England.

A key difference between the eurozone and the US is that lending between two banks located in two different member countries is still perceived as carrying quite different risks than “domestic” lending (between two banks in the same country). This is not the case in the US, because it has an integrated financial system, and support for banks (deposit insurance or outright bailouts) is administered at the federal level.

As a result, the fact that California might be closer to bankruptcy than some eurozone countries has no influence at all on the credit rating of banks headquartered there, or on their ability to obtain funds on the inter-bank market. In Europe, by contrast, the fate of all banks depends upon their home governments.