What was initially thought to be a regional banking crisis in the US has now expanded globally. On Wednesday, Credit Suisse, a bank that has been around for over a century, experienced a 24% drop in stock prices due to the fear of a potential default. Credit Suisse is Switzerland’s second-largest bank, following UBS Group AG, and is a significant player in international financial markets, with operations across Europe, Asia, and a substantial US business.
As fears of a global financial contagion grow and with the banking crisis now affecting both sides of the Atlantic, investors are frantically shifting their assets from riskier investments to safer alternatives, such as the USD dollar, which is helping fuel a surge in the USD dollar against most currencies.