EU banks hit with harsher stress tests

Europe's biggest banks must fully disclose their exposure to sovereign debts, as part of a new round of stricter stress tests.

However, banks will not have to consider the impact of a formal default by a European government, the BBC reports, despite this being a key criticism of previous tests that failed to anticipate the collapse of Irish banks last year. In other respects, the latest tests will be much stricter, according to the European Banking Authority (EBA). They will run for the next three months, with the results published in June this year. Banks will be "expected to disclose their exposures to sovereigns broken down by accounting portfolios, maturities and countries," said the EBA. The disclosur...