European banks are among the stock market’s top performers, making winners out of the investors who backed them when many wouldn’t touch them during the pandemic.

This year, the Euro Stoxx Banks index is up 26% — compared with a 14% rise for the broader benchmark — and has recently regained all the ground it lost during the pandemic. Some individual stocks have done even better. Spain’s Banco de Sabadell, which was hammered during the pandemic’s shutdowns, is up 60% in 2021, while French banking giant Société Générale is up nearly 50%.