European Banks Going Through "Oil Shock": French Bank Chief

The deputy chief executive of French banking giant Société Générale (Paris:GLE) said during a conference in Paris Wednesday that the global banking industry is going through a "paradigm shift," according to the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires.

Severin Cabannes, the banking head, was referring to the liquidity which, in his estimation, had been relied on for too long by bankers around the globe.

"We have long lived with the illusion that liquidity was infinite and free. We are now entering the real world where liquidity is rare, and with a limited maturity," Cabannes said, according to the newswire, concluding, "It's like an oil shock."

While Cabannes was speaking of the wider macroeconomic conditions, the market did not respond kindly to his comments. Shares of Société Générale were trading at €19.71 during late-day trading on the Bourse de Paris, 2.76 percent less than the previous day's close. Those returns underperformed the global banking sector, as the Dow Jones Banks Titans 30 Index, a benchmark index of some of the largest banks in the world was up .56 percent for the day.