hello and welcome to the programme. a group of big american banks has injected 30 billion dollars into a smaller regional bank, first republic, which had been seen as at risk of failure. it comes as fears grow of a crisis in the global financial sector. shares in european banks hit a two month low after the eurozone s central bank hiked interest rates by a half of one percent. the us treasury secretary, janet yellen, has insisted the us financial system remains sound despite a series of bank collapses. you i can reassure the members that the banking system is sound and that americans can feel confident that the deposits will be there when they need them. these actions demonstrate a resolute commission data may commitment that our financial system remains strong that our depositors remain safe. our north america correspondent, peter bowes joins us now. questions: so peter, what s prompted janet yellen to strike such a reassuring tone there? it has, for about a week now since
jitters about the security of their investments in their ability to use that money to pay their bills and pay their workers and to meet the payroll here in the states every couple weeks and it prompted some to take the action of taking their money out of those banks and putting it into larger banks thatis putting it into larger banks that is exactly what those medium sized banks in the banking industry generally does not want to see. that is why we are hearing the words of janet reassurance and confidence she was talking about and wanting to instill confidence in people that the us banking system is an unhealthy state and that is also why we see these major ii also why we see these major 11 private banksj.p. morgan, private banks j. p. morgan, chase private banksj.p. morgan, chase citigroup including injecting some huge amount of money, $30 billion in two first republic to keep it alive. fine republic to keep it alive. one thing that republic to keep it alive. one thing that we re