Nine banks fail Europe stress tests

Nine banks fail Europe stress tests

Only nine banks failed the long-running stress test carried out on 91 European banks, far fewer than analysts had predicted, in a result that potentially undermines claims that the exercise was tough enough to restore investors’ jaded faith in the eurozone financial system. Spain, as expected, was the worst performing country with five of its banks while Greece had two failures. The other failures were Austria’s Volksbanken and Germany’s Helaba, which withheld its result after a row with the European Banking Authority, which carried out the test, over the quality of its capital. Britain’s banks all passed the exercise, but the impact of the stress test scenario on current capital levels was among the most severe, with a 25 per cent reduction in ratios, beaten only by Greek banks, for which the impact was 40 per cent. http://link.ft.com/r/VKY5JJ/088IMR/D45D0H/KEKOV4/U1UHHX/N9/h?a1=2011&a2=7&a3=15