European Bank Stress Tests - Banks Didn't Tell the Whole Truth

What a surprise. It seems when Europe ran it's bank stress tests, they only didn't report a few billion here and there.

Market Watch:

Europe's highly touted stress tests of major banks earlier this summer understated holdings of potentially risky government debt, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Wall Street Journal:

An examination of the banks’ disclosures indicates that some banks didn’t provide as comprehensive a picture of their government-debt holdings as regulators claimed. Some banks excluded certain bonds, and many reduced the sums to account for “short” positions they held — facts that neither regulators nor most banks disclosed when the test results were published in late July.

Because of the limited nature of most banks’ disclosures, it is impossible to gauge the number of banks that excluded portions of their sovereign portfolios from their disclosures, or the overall effect of that practice.

The original Wall Street Journal article here, requires a subscription.

Europe's recent "stress tests" of the strength of major banks understated some lenders' holdings of potentially risky government debt, a Wall Street Journal analysis shows.

As part of the tests, 91 of Europe's largest banks were required to reveal how much government debt from European countries they held on their balance sheets. Regulators said the figures showed banks' total holdings of that debt as of March 31.

Seeking Alpha has a laundry list of problems with Europe and notes the two worst offenders from the Wall Street Journal article in downplaying their sovereign debt holdings are Barclays and Credit Agricole.

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this is a little offtopic...but

Can you believe on deaf ears the trillions given to Wall Street is going to cause a bloodbath for Democrats? Shame there isn't much of a choice to vote for. Usually there is one good one running each cycle, but I've been so disgusted I haven't even checked positions, backgrounds yet. I wish there was "none of the above" or the whole country got some write ins and promised to vote for them in masse.