The past five months, investor sentiment towards banks has hardly stopped improving. "The measures taken by the ECB since the beginning of the year have been particularly beneficial to the banks of the euro area", explained in a research note Thibaut Spoon and Badr El Moutawakil, market strategists at Natixis. Both LTRO operations began by reducing the liquidity risk for banks, although their effect was short-lived. Subsequently, Mario Draghi's speech of 26 July and early August announcement of the new program to repurchase debt the ECB helped ease tensions in the debt of "peripheral" countries. Heavily exposed to the sovereign debt, banks in Spain, Italy and even in French immediately took advantage. Banks have benefited from a flow of new favorablesLa perception that banks became less risky for investors is also explained by other factors. "The expansion of eligibility criteria for repo operations of the ECB continues to facilitate access to liquidity for the second-tier banks in peripheral countries that continue to have limited access to the primary market," note the Natixis' market strategists. In addition, the proposed union bank, even if he should not see the light until 2013, convinced the markets that there is a European determination to end the link between bank debt and sovereign debt. The deferral of certain restrictive measures for banks may also have contributed to their comeback. Feared earlier in the year, "the repricing risk on senior debt linked to the introduction of a resolution regime at EU level will not affect debt holders before 2018," say Thibaut Spoon and Badr El Moutawakil. As for the implementation of Basel 3, it should be postponed. Finally, with the exception of a few cases like Santander still disappointing quarterly results published this morning, the results of U.S. and European banks show a relatively good health of financial institutions. "The steepening of the yield curve increases the banks' ability to generate income," said Alexandre Hezez, responsible management in Convictions AM. Normalization of the hierarchy rendementsDepuis the middle of September, the performance of senior bank debt and is pressed below the debt issued by companies. This is the first time that has happened since the beginning of the financial crisis. Past three years, investors felt it was more risky to hold bank debt as debt "corporate". A priori abnormal situation. Indeed, companies rely heavily on banks for financing. Contraction risk premiums bancairesAutre sign of the normalization process: risk premiums measured by the CDS (credit derivatives) banks contracted sharply in recent times. Insurance against the risk of default Check this article if you want to read more