By Tom Sims and Iain Withers
FRANKFURT/LONDON (Reuters) -Europe’s financial sector was reeling on Thursday as the Ukraine conflict took a turn for the worse, with Deutsche Bank saying it had contingency plans in place and Allianz saying it had frozen its Russian government bond exposure.
Britain’s biggest domestic lender Lloyds said it was on “heightened alert” for cyberattacks from Russia as the crisis in Ukraine has worsened.
Shares of leading banks sank at the start of trade. An index of European banking stocks was down 2.7% in early trade. UniCredit was down 6% and Commerzbank down 7%.
Germany’s market regulator BaFin said it was keeping a watchful eye on the crisis.
Earlier Thursday, Russian forces fired missiles at several cities in Ukraine and landed troops on its coast, officials and media said, after President Vladimir Putin authorised what he called a special military operation in the east.
Both Deutsche Bank and Allianz – two of Europe’s most important financial firms and both with operations in Russia – said they were ready to comply with sanctions.
(Reporting by Tom Sims, Iain Withers, Lawrence WhiteEditing by Miranda Murray)
