Dutch banks stand the EU stress test

The Netherlands welcomes and adopts the outcome of the EU stress test.

The test, which was carried out by the European Banking Authority (EBA) in cooperation with national supervisory bodies, such as DNB (the Dutch Central Bank), is intended to measure the ability of the banking system in the European Union to withstand serious shocks. The test is taken by simulating an adverse economic scenario for the period 2011-2012. Those four Dutch banks that have participated suffer losses in this scenario but continue to be more than sufficiently capitalised.

The stress test implies something about the possible future vulnerabilities of banks in case of very adverse developments. In this way it becomes clear whether the banks are sufficiently capitalised so that they can withstand adverse economic and financial conditions. These are fictitious situations that go much further than is to be expected. The most important thing is that it helps the supervisory bodies and governments to be prepared in case such a scenario does materialise.

Minister De Jager: "All the Dutch banks have passed the test again. This is good news, because the stress test has been improved and the auditing is stricter than last year. It is also important that now many more details of individual banks have become clear. This makes the banking sector more transparent to investors."

The Dutch Central Bank (DNB) uses the outcome of the stress test in the supervision of the institutions and determines the desired capital level on the basis of this outcome, among other things. The outcome will be established for each institution separately, whereby the risks specific to each institution are taken into account.

The Netherlands continues to devote itself to guarantee the financial stability and to contribute to the further strengthening of the defences of the banking sector as agreed upon at EU level.