US banks more at risk than European firms

We have seen over recent weeks stocks falling significantly, this is a direct result of US banks, such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the biggest loser so far has to be IndyMac.

It seems that this trend of banks at risk is more of a problem for US banks rather than European firms. Experts have said that default risk has risen significantly for U.S. banks and brokers however; this seems to be a different story in Europe.

That is not to say that other banks outside the U.S. are not having their own problems, just look at all the trouble surrounding UK bank Northern Rock, they had to get help from their government.

If you head over to seekingalpha.com, they have a table which shows the bank and broker default list, and you can clearly see that it is the U.S. banks that are right up the top of the list.

The table shows percent change in equities and default risk over the last week for 15 global financial firms.