German Chancellor Olaf Scholz dismissed concerns about Deutstche Bank as fresh upheavals shook Europe's banking sector on Friday, sending shares sinking.
"Deutsche Bank has fundamentally modernized and reorganized its business model and is a very profitable bank," Scholz said, rejecting any comparison between Germany's largest lender and Credit Suisse.
"There is no reason to worry about anything," he said in Brussels at an EU summit.
Deutsche Bank's Frankfurt-listed shares plunged as much as 14% on Friday, driven in part by a jump in default insurance costs, before recovering to close down more than 8%. German rival Commerzbank lost about 5%.
Concerns about the recent turmoil in the banking industries, and signs of further monetary tightening by central banks, hurt European lenders.
France's Société Générale closed down 6% and BNP Paribas lost 5%.
Germany's DAX stock market index of the country's top 40 blue chips, closed down 1.66%, slipping back below 15,000 points to 14,957.23.
The MDAX, which includes mid-cap stocks, fell by 2.86% to 26,484.15.
The other European stock exchanges also went south: The EuroStoxx 50, the leading index of the largest eurozone companies, fell by 1.8%. France's CAC 40 fell 1.7% and Britain's FTSE 100 fell 1.3%.
The recent state-backed takeover of Swiss bank major Credit Suisse and the collapse of several smaller US banks has shaken market confidence.
But Eurogroup chief Paschal Donohoe and EU leaders said at their summit in Brussels that banks in the eurozone are now better positioned after past turmoil shook the global banking sector.
"We have the reserves and the resilience to ensure the stability of our banking system at the moment," said Donohoe, currently head of the group of eurozone finance ministers.
French President Emmanuel Macron was similarly confident.
"We are not in a comparable situation. The fundamentals are sound," Macron said about Deutsche Bank in reference to Credit Suisse's crisis.
