European bank stocks have completely retreated their gains from earlier this year.

On Friday, the European banking sector suffered a sharp decline, with all the gains made this year wiped out. The European banking stocks index fell by 3%, with several large banks seeing significant drops in their stock prices. Societe Generale in France dropped by 5.3%, while the German banking giants Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank fell by 5.2% and 3.6% respectively. Santander and BBVA in Spain both declined by 2.5% and 3.2%, and UniCredit in Italy dropped by 3.75%. Barclays Bank also fell by 2.3%.