Fears over a possible economic slowdown, sovereign debt and not enough capitalization at U.S. financial institutions sent the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP) Risk Index up 2.5 points to 110.5 in the second quarter. This is very close to the previous high reached in the third quarter of 2010.
Underlying factors that rose the most in the index were macroeconomic conditions (+9.26%), banking health (+8.65%), credit spreads (+4.85%) and financial leverage (+3.48%).
Among the macroeconomic indicators, anxieties about the U.S. deficit rose 11%.
Seventy-nine percent of risk managers expressed fear that the European debt crisis will affect the U.S., 16% from the first quarter, and 58% said they are greatly concerned about the capitalization of U.S. financial institutions.
