The problem with bank runs is that once they start, they don't stop. And while the world was conveniently distracted by events in Greece, debating whether or not people were withdrawing money in droves (they were), the real bank run happened elsewhere, namely in Spain, where just nationalized bank Bankia moments ago plunged 30% and was halted following an El Mundo report that "customers had withdrawn €1 billion over the past week." In other words - a bank run (but whatever you do, don't call it that - it's not the politically correct and accepted nomenclature) which has sent shockwaves through Europe, pushed the EURUSD under 1.27, and bond yields in their traditional "Europe is open" direction - wider.



From FT:

Shares in Bankia, the Spanish bank which was part-nationalised last week, plunged by over a quarter on Thursday morning, after a report that customers had withdrawn €1bn from the bank over the past week. Shares fell 27 per cent to €1.21 after El Mundo, a national Spanish newspaper, reported customers had withdrawn €1bn from the bank over the past week, citing information from a recent board meeting. The self-styled “the leader of the new banks” was formed from seven cajas last year and has now shed nearly 70 per cent of its market capitalisation since its shares were listed in July of last year. The fall helped to drive the broader IBEX 35 index down 2 per cent to 6,480.7.

The news has started to spill over to other PIIGS banks, and very soon all Italian banks will resume being suspended limit down on fear that the bank run contagion, pardon, the withdrawal meme (h/t William Banzai), because in this fake, artificially supported world, one is never allowed to call a spade a spade, has commenced.

In th meantime don't panic: after all, just recall the Bank of Spain statement which promised that despite the Bankia nationalization, that "BFA-Bankia is a solvent entity that continues to function quite normally and customers and depositors should have no concern."

Turns out depositors had a few concerns...