Bargains in the banking sector

Many of Europe's banks still look pretty haggard, says John Stepek. But if you look carefully, you might just find some bargains.

It's been a pretty miserable week or so for the banking sector. That's nothing new the banks (and their investors) have barely seen a glimmer of good news since the financial crisis kicked off in 2007. The latest excuse for investors to express their contempt for the sector came last Friday. After the markets closed, the European Banking Authority, Europe's banking watchdog, released its latest batch of stress-test results.

The tests are pretty much a PR exercise, with no explicit "pass" or "fail" mark as Larry Elliott notes in The Guardian, "they are designed to impart confidence, to explain that things aren't quite as bad as they appear to be".

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up
Explore More
John Stepek

John Stepek is a senior reporter at Bloomberg News and a former editor of MoneyWeek magazine. He graduated from Strathclyde University with a degree in psychology in 1996 and has always been fascinated by the gap between the way the market works in theory and the way it works in practice, and by how our deep-rooted instincts work against our best interests as investors.

He started out in journalism by writing articles about the specific business challenges facing family firms. In 2003, he took a job on the finance desk of Teletext, where he spent two years covering the markets and breaking financial news.

His work has been published in Families in Business, Shares magazine, Spear's Magazine, The Sunday Times, and The Spectator among others. He has also appeared as an expert commentator on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, BBC Radio Scotland, Newsnight, Daily Politics and Bloomberg. His first book, on contrarian investing, The Sceptical Investor, was released in March 2019. You can follow John on Twitter at @john_stepek.