These results demonstrate that all Spanish banks have successfully passed the solvency tests and, therefore, possess a sufficiently solid capital base to withstand a highly adverse economic scenario. It should be noted that Spanish banks have maintained their capital strength without requiring public capital injections.
Spanish banks have once again demonstrated, as they have throughout the current crisis, that thanks to their business model and the rigorous provisioning system established by the Bank of Spain, they possess a great capacity to withstand market stress and a deteriorating macroeconomic environment.
The solvency tests conducted in Spain were not limited to meeting the standards set by the CEBS and ECB; instead, at the request of the Bank of Spain, the Spanish credit institutions subjected to these tests have provided complementary information to ensure maximum transparency.
Spanish banks have always been in favor of publishing the individual results of these tests, and are therefore particularly pleased that the European authorities, at the proposal of the Government of Spain, have finally decided to make them public. The Spanish entities subjected to these tests represent almost the entirety of the Spanish financial system.
The AEB is confident that the transparency effort made by the 91 entities subjected to the stress tests will contribute to restoring confidence in European banks and help re-establish the normal functioning of financial markets.
