European lawmakers are quietly miffed at U.S. regulators over SVB's collapse

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U.S. regulators made mistakes in failing to prevent the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and other financial institutions, according to lawmakers in the European Union who believe this is also a moment for some self-assessment in Europe.

Silvergate Capital, a bank focused on cryptocurrency, was the first to fall, saying March 8 that it would be ceasing operations. Shortly after, Silicon Valley Bank failed after a run on deposits. Signature Bank, which focused on lending to real estate firms, then saw deposit outflows leading regulators to seize the bank to prevent contagion across the sector.

Since then, First Republic Bank has also received support from other banks amid fears of a wider shock to the financial system. And in Switzerland, a non-member of the European Union, authorities had to rescue Credit Suisse by asking UBS to step in with an acquisition.

Meanwhile, regulators and officials across the European Union have been nervous about potential contagion to their own banking sector. After all, it's not been that long since European banks were in the depths of the global financial crisis.

«There is no direct read across of U.S. events to [the] euro area significant banks,» Andrea Enria, chair of the European Central Bank's supervisory board, said Tuesday. Like him, an array of officials have made an effort to stress that the European banking system is in much better share compared to 2008.

This reinforces the view in the EU that the U.S. should learn from some of the regulatory works put in place in the euro area since the financial crisis.

«You need stronger regulation… in that sense the U.S. lacks some controls,» Paul Tang, a lawmaker and a member of the European Parliament's economic committee,