Banks in Europe Fail Stress Tests With No Authority

In the five months after the U.S. published results of its 2009 bank stress tests, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Financials Index rose 25 percent. Five months after the European Union released its version, the Bloomberg Europe Banks and Financial Services Index is down 4 percent.

The failure of the EU tests to restore confidence in the region’s banks was underscored last month when Ireland directed its two biggest lenders, both of which passed the exams, to raise additional capital. Since the results were disclosed on July 23, the cost of insuring the senior debt of 110 European banks against default rose 113 basis points, or 1.13 percentage points, while credit-default swaps on 34 of the largest U.S. banks are unchanged, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.