LONDON, Feb 11 (Reuters) - European banks slumped to newmulti-year lows on Thursday, with concerns mounting over theirprofitability in a low-growth and low-interest rate environment.
The STOXX Europe 600 Banks index fell 6 percent toits lowest level since August 2012, dragged down by lenders suchas Societe Generale, which plummeted 14 percent afterposting a lower than expected rise in fourth-quarter net income.
Britain's banking index dropped 4.3 percent,its lowest level since 2009.
HSBC and Standard Chartered fell 4 percentand 6 percent respectively. Both banks, which have largeoperations in Hong Kong, suffered a sell-off on the Hong Kongstock market that slumped on Thursday due to persistent worriesabout a slowdown in China.
Swedish banks such as Svenska Handelsbanken,Swedbank and Nordea Bank were down 3.8 to4.2 percent, extending falls after Sweden's central bank cut itsbenchmark repo rate by 15 basis points to -0.50 percent.
Greece's benchmark banking index sank 17.7percent to set a new record low.
Concerns about the banks were also highlighted in the creditdefault swap (CDS) market, which reflects the market cost ofinsuring exposure to bank debt, with prices rising on the ITRAXXSenior Financials Index and the ITRAXX EuropeSubordinate Financials indexes.
Shares in Deutsche Bank fell 7 percent, while CDSprices also rose for Deutsche Bank. (Reporting by Atul Prakash; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)