Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody's Analytics, said that the ongoing banking crisis is completely different from the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008-2009 in four key ways. Notably, the collapse of two major US banks - Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank - caused havoc in the US financial sector. Experts feared that the panic could cause another financial crisis. Against this background, investors and customers began to withdraw their deposits en masse to save their funds. Although market jitters eased concerns about the looming crisis still persist. Meanwhile, Mark Zandi names four factors that distinguish the current crisis from the previous one:

1. All financial institutions were affected by the GFC

Today, only small and mid-sized banks are caught up in the downdraft, facing financial problems. In the GFC, nearly all financial institutions were impacted.

2. After the GFC, the US financial sector was subject to massive reforms

The US government had to introduce massive reforms to the financial system. Nowadays, such reforms are off the table, the analyst says. The implemented reforms prevented the US banking sector from aftershocks. Today, US banks are able to “weather very dark economic scenarios.”

3. The US government acted swiftly to curb the crisis

This time, the US government quickly responded to the crisis. In 2008-2009, the US regulators did not take timely actions to prevent the GFC. In addition, the US Federal Reserve put up a new credit facility for banks to keep them alive which "stands in striking contrast to the decision to Lehman Brothers fail during the GFC," Zandi added. Thus, clients should not worry about their bank deposits.

4. The economic backdrop has become different

Zandi pinpoints that the current economic backdrop differs greatly from that of the Great Financial Crisis. "The economy is currently growing strongly, there are lots of jobs, and unemployment is very low. When the financial system cratered in the GFC, the economy was already 9 months into a significant recession and housing bust," Zandi writes on Twitter.