Spain contests bank test results

The results of stress tests conducted on European banks, which will be published on July 15, are not to the taste of Spanish financial institutions. "Banks and building societies have criticised the European solvency tests," arguing that "the test criteria do not reflect the reality," reports La Vanguardia. According to the Barcelona daily, "Europe has turned its back on Spain," because "all of the instruments to assist banks in overcoming the crisis were not taken into account." The newspaper cites the example of the system of counter-cyclical provisions, "an instrument unique to Spain," in which banks set aside money in preparation for difficult periods in the future, which was completely ignored by the European Banking Association (EBA).

La Vanguardia reports that 90 banks, including 25 Spanish ones, were tested by the EBA, which is hoping to obtain homogeneous results. The newspaper further points out that the "the debt crisis has also prompted a crisis in the field of banking supervision." The logic of the tests is that they "should be accepted by the markets as irrefutable," but this was not the case with the 2010 tests, which had no lasting impact in the wake of the difficulties experienced by Irish banks.