Stress test

While underscoring its independence, the European Central Bank suggested on Monday it was still flexible enough to accommodate the repeated demand by the International Monetary Fund for a fresh review of the state of the local credit sector, as it emerged Greek banks will undergo their stress tests earlier than their European Union peers are put through theirs next year.

Along with banks that have signaled they will be moving jobs abroad, Brexit will probably see the European Banking Authority leave London -- and rival cities are jockeying to be its next host.

The London headquarters of the European Union's financial regulator, in the Canary Wharf district, has 170 staff members from 27 of the 28 European Union nations.

The profit of the banking system in Bulgaria exceeded BGN 1 B, showed BNB data for August, reported BNR.

August is the month when the results of the stress tests in the system came out.

The ECB’s recent stress tests showed that Greece’s four banks are in need of 14.4 billion euros to cover their capital needs. Banks now have a deadline until Friday, November 6, to send their plans and start a series of discussions and meetings with foreign investors already participating in their portfolios so as to cover their needs.

European Commission Vice-President Kristalina Georgieva advised Bulgaria to introduce a transparency register similar to that established by the EU.

Georgieva pointed that the Commission introduced a transparency register this year and if a Commissioner is meeting a private organisation or NGO it has to appear on the register.

NICOSIA – Cyprus’s Hellenic Bank has raised 201 million euros in new capital, covering the adverse scenario capitalization shortfall of Europe-wide stress tests in October.

The bank said its three major shareholders – Wargaming, Third Point Hellenic Recovery Fund and Demetra Investments – fully supported the rights issue.

An international conference titled "Banking stability" organized by the Bank of the Year Association will take place on December 3 at the National Archaeological Museum in Sofia.

The issue of banking stability is particularly topical in Bulgaria today but it is also important for the other EU Member States, according to the organizers of the event.

European shares turned lower on Thursday as banks in countries such as Italy, Greece and Spain resumed their recent downtrend.

Shares in peripheral banks have mostly been falling since the publication of the results of the European Central Bank's stress tests over the weekend.

By Maria Petrakis

Wilbur Ross, the US billionaire who has invested in some of the euro-area’s crisis-stricken lenders, said Europe’s stress tests fixed only one of the region’s problems.

The capital adequacy ratios of the subsidiaries of the banking groups operating on the Romanian market, included in the assessments conducted in Europe, are higher than the regulated thresholds, the National Bank of Romania (BNR) announced on Monday in a press release.