The crisis of the major European banks has cost the public budgets of the Old Continent 221 billion euros, equal to 1,2 times Greece's GDP and not far from the 240 billion of the Athens bailout. If we also consider the state capital injections for the benefit of the German Landesbanks or the Spanish Cajas, we go well beyond the cost of the Greek bail-in. This is the picture that emerges from the study on "Major international banks" by R&S Mediobanca which examines 32 big European banks, as well as 15 credit giants from Japan, 13 from the United States and this year also 10 from China. The banking crisis in Europe reduced state revenues from taxes in the period 2009-2014 by 87 billion euros. To these must be added the 180 billion euros of capital increases in favor of banks in difficulty that came out of the public coffers, from which, however, the 46 billion of returned capital must be deducted. The final bill for European public budgets thus reaches 221 billion.
In the USA, the crisis of the big banks, between lost revenues and higher disbursements, weighed on the other hand by 142,5 billion dollars. Washington disbursed 196 billion to recapitalize troubled banks and had to do without 103 billion in taxes. However, US banks have already returned 157 billion to federal coffers and therefore the final bill is 142,5 billion dollars. The costs of the European banking crisis for the taxpayer worsen further if we include the weight of the German Landesbanks which in seven years received 25,3 billion from (mostly public) shareholders and the Spanish savings banks which sold 39 billion net to the public Sareb of deteriorated positions. Unlike the one in Athens, the bank bailouts have not met with opposition neither in the North nor in the South of Europe.
