The market value of a slim majority of Europe's largest banks fell on a quarterly basis at the end of September, with Spain's Banco Santander SA posting the steepest decline of 6.28%, according to data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Santander has seen its share price fall since late July, around the time when Andrea Orcel, the former investment bank head of UBS Group AG, filed a €100 million lawsuit against the Spanish lender for dropping its plan to hire him as CEO. Santander also said in September that it would recognize an accounting impairment of roughly €1.5 billion following a review of the goodwill attributed to its British arm. The Spanish lender, however, remained third in the table of top 20 banks in Europe based on market capitalization.
Spanish peer Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA fell a notch to 10th place after seeing a 2.62% fall in its market cap quarter over quarter.
Britain's HSBC Holdings PLC and Lloyds Banking Group PLC, PAO Sberbank of Russia and France's BNP Paribas SA all kept their places in the top five, while ING Groep NV, Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and Standard Chartered PLC fell two notches. Nordea Bank Abp and KBC Group NV, meanwhile, climbed two notches to sit on the 14th place and 16th spot, respectively, in the table.
Sweden's Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB also made it to the list in the third quarter.

