Banks: it feels like 2008 again

Bank shares have plummeted in recent days. Falling house prices and rising foreclosures have caused investors to wonder whether we are in for a rerun of 2008.

Banks are back in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Following reports of a credit squeeze in the European interbank market, this week US banking giant Bank of America (BoA) saw its shares slump again. They've lost a third of their value since the beginning of the month. Investors fear the bank will have to raise at least $50bn in new capital because it is exposed to the deteriorating housing market. Swiss bank UBS will axe 5% of its staff, or 3,500 people. European banks have slashed a total of 60,000 jobs this year, 50,000 of them in Britain.

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