mr president i should like to say this to the commissioner the bank crisis resolution is being elaborated at an international level and there are also important competition issues to address but this does not mean that everything has to wait in particular when we have a combined sovereign debt and banking crisis
last year's tests were weak
we said so then and have repeatedly said that bank stress tests must be credible robust and transparent
indeed we need a whole lot more banking transparency in general
so i suggest that we take a lesson from the us and the dodd frank act which requires disclosure with a two-year time lag of the us fed's liquidity provision
there are european names in the us disclosures and it would be an altogether healthy thing for eu central banks to follow suit with similar disclosure about support during two thousand and eight and two thousand and nine as an accompaniment to the new stress tests
now these new stress tests are improved under the eba but there are still issues being avoided due to guarding and prevarication by member states
it is about time that the message sank in that feeble political will is not the answer to this crisis and makes solutions more expensive
why try and hide the full level of banks exposure to sovereign debt especially when we all know the likely reality
there really is no excuse not to stress-test the banking book
various assets got parked there under the heading of hold to maturity which would have been moved if they had not lost value
of course analysts in the market are well able to read across from stress tests and other information and make an estimate as to what is going on in the banking books
but a darker interpretation reflecting on some member states themselves will be cast by the fact that member states and in many cases the supervisors are the culprits were not bolder incoming clean
meanwhile actions are being provoked by the stress tests banks are seeking capital some member states are being proactive in pushing banks to raise capital
but there is no overall plan to address under-capitalisation
this simply does not stack up surely one thing we have learned in the crisis is that we are very interconnected
if banks do not trust one another and inter-bank lending is frozen we have a big problem
so please can we have proper disclosed coordination of the response
but let us not dodge the elephant in the room this is not just about banks it is about sovereign debt and the stability of the euro inextricably linked and overwhelmingly important
