rising interest rates aren’t the straightforward boon to longsuffering european banks they may first appear patience will be required european bank shares have outperformed strongly this year—up about 6 even as the wider market has fallen they are economic bellwethers so signs of recovery have buoyed them alongside other cyclical stocks ever since covid19 vaccines first showed success in late 2020 now there is also excited talk of higher benchmark interest rates albeit with a delay in the eurozone compared with britain and the us