Press releases
DekaBank passes more stringent bank stress test convincingly
DekaBank has passed the current EU-wide bank stress test with a forecast Core Tier 1 capital ratio of 9.2% as at the end of 2012. Despite the underlying shock scenario and recent buyback of the Bank’s own shares from the Landesbanken worth around EUR 1 billion, the central asset manager for the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe clearly outstrips the 5% benchmark set by the European Banking Authority (EBA) with this ratio. Excluding the charge resulting from the buyback of own shares, DekaBank would have achieved a Core Tier 1 capital ratio of 12.1% under the adverse stress test scenario. Chairman of the Management Board of DekaBank, Franz S. Waas, Ph.D., explained: “We have now also passed the second bank stress test convincingly and have come through the financial market crisis without government support measures. This highlights DekaBank’s stability and viability, including under the most difficult conditions. In the future, banks will be facing even more stringent regulatory capital requirements. We are preparing for this with a forward-looking capital plan.”
The stress test was conducted by the EBA in 2011, in cooperation with the Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (BaFin), the Deutsche Bundesbank, the European Central Bank (ECB), the European Commission (EC) and the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB). It was carried out across a total of 91 banks covering over 65% of the EU banking system total assets. The aim was to test the resilience of European banks to severe shocks and their specific solvency in hypothetical stress events under certain restrictive conditions. The more stringent adverse stress test scenario developed by the ECB covers a two-year time horizon (2011 to 2012) and was applied using a static balance sheet assumption as at December 2010.