ONE bank operating in Slovakia failed to pass sector-wide financial stress tests conducted in April by the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS). The NBS did not, however, identify the bank, the Sme daily wrote on its website.
The country’s central bank monitors the condition of the Slovak banking sector based on data it receives from individual banks. It conducted the tests on three models. The basic scenario assessed banks’ capital adequacy in line with forecast economic growth. In this case all banks passed the tests, i.e. their capital adequacy was not below 8 percent. The remaining two scenarios were based on an economic downturn, either a steep 10-percent contraction of GDP during the year or an international crisis. In these cases one bank would have faced potential problems with capital, needing an additional €7.6 million and €11.2 million, respectively.
Even the banks themselves do not officially know the results of the tests, although risk managers at each bank have been informed about tests’ results unofficially, according to Sme.
While the large banks plus Prima Banka confirmed that they had passed the tests, smaller banks were more reticent. Sberbank, which is now Russian-owned, said that it had not been told by the central bank that it did not pass the tests. Poštová Banka, which has faced capital problems in the past, responded that “Poštová Banka always complies with valid legislation,” its spokesperson Naďa Urbanová was quoted as saying.
According to its accounts, its capital adequacy was 11.3 percent at the end of 2012. This figure ranks Poštová Banka among the weaker banks in Slovakia, according to Sme.
