Press release - EBA Stress Test results and Slovenian Banks test
Following a break of one year, the European Banking Authority (EBA) has carried out an EU-wide stress test exercise again this year. The aforementioned exercise included the 51 largest systemically important banks (accounting for 70% of the EU banking system). The ECB is responsible for the direct supervision of 37 of those banks. Slovenian banks were not included in the EBA’s stress tests, as the threshold for inclusion in this year’s exercise was total assets of at least EUR 30 billion. The EBA’s stress test exercise began at the end of February 2016 (24 February 2016), with the publication of the final versions of scenarios, the methodology and forms. More information regarding scenarios, the applied methodology, forms and samples is accessible at the following website: http://www.eba.europa.eu/-/eba-launches-2016-eu-wide-stress-test-exercise
The results of the EBA’s exercise, including the individual results of banks, are published today, 29 July 2016, following the close of markets, on the EBA’s website: http://www.eba.europa.eu/-/eba-publishes-2016-eu-wide-stress-test-results.
As competent supervisor, the ECB carries out the Supervisory Review and Evaluation Process (SREP) every year. Stress tests represent one of the key elements of the SREP.
Consequently, the ECB will:
- include the results of the EBA’s stress tests in the SREP for important banks included in EBA's stress tests; and
- perform its own SREP stress tests for important banks not included in the EBA’s stress tests.
Three Slovenian banks (NLB, NKBM and Abanka) are among the important banks not included in the EBA’s stress tests. NLB and NKBM are included this year in the ECB’s SREP stress tests. Due to its reclassification as an important bank in the scope of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), Abanka will be subject to a comprehensive assessment, stress tests being an integral part of that assessment. With the aim of ensuring the equal treatment of all important banks within the SSM (as part of or outside the scope of the sample of EBA stress tests), the banks included in the SREP stress tests followed the EBA’s methodology in full. The results of the ECB’s SREP stress tests will not be made public.
In accordance with established practice from previous years, the Bank of Slovenia also conducted bottom-up stress tests for other banks that fall under its direct competence. As usual, the Bank of Slovenia followed the scenarios, methodology and forms from the EBA’s stress tests, while also following the timetable and approach from the SREP stress tests performed by the ECB for the purpose of comparability with important banks (NLB, NKBM and Abanka).
In contrast to previous stress tests, no threshold has been set for the successful performance of those tests (i.e. it is not a pass/fail exercise). In accordance with the approach of the EBA and that of the ECB, the results for all banks will be taken into account during the annual SREP. Other supervisory measures will follow for banks at which new risks were identified.