This year’s pan-European Union health check of banks will go beyond signalling a pass or fail and will point out problems at specific lenders, Michel Barnier, the bloc’s financial services chief said on Thursday.
Barnier, European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, said he saw no problem in the European Banking Authority (EBA) requesting more data from banks and that a delay in the publication of the results from June to next month would not be a problem.
“I can’t see any problem if there is a delay of a few days in publishing the results. We have to make absolutely sure that we have valid figures, that can be compared between banks and member states and that we can trust,” Barnier told Reuters.
“It is also important because this year it is not only a pass or fail exercise, but we’ll try to identify specific problems for specific banks and look at the situation of banks which are just above the mark,” Barnier added.
The EBA said on Wednesday it has to go back to some of the 90 banks it is testing due to errors and unrealistic assumptions in the data it has received from them. Publication of the results is now expected in early July.
The aim of the test is to restore investor confidence in a sector still being shored up by taxpayers after the financial crisis.
Banks are being tested on how much capital they would end up holding after undergoing economic shocks scenarios.
“EBA has now asked for more information and data because it had doubts on some information it received, and I don’t see any problem in publishing the results a few days after it was initially scheduled,” Barnier said.
Barnier was in Washington to meet with U.S. officials to discuss progress in transatlantic financial regulation reforms. (Reporting by Julien Toyer, writing by Huw Jones; Editing by Will Waterman)
