European banks' hoarding of US dollars to cope with the financial crisis has damaged the credibility of the euro becoming an alternative world reserve currency, analysts at Credit Suisse have argued. Their comments follow a speech by the Chinese governor of the central bank threw doubt on the US dollar's reserve status.

In research written on Wednesday, Credit Suisse argued that the euro's credibility suffered on two fronts - exposure to emerging markets and European banks reacting to the crisis by hoarding dollars, not euros as they had previously done.