”I don't see the need to carry out new stress tests three months after the last ones. Investors can already apply the new adjustments to the assets of European banks, they already have enough information and can apply their own assessments”. This is the opinion of Andrea Beltratti, chairman of the management board of Intesa Sanpaolo, who this morning spoke at a conference at the Bocconi University in Milan.
In general terms, Beltratti said he was "in favor of stress tests", because they guarantee a "level of transparency that non-European banks do not have". The manager, however, doubts that "a recapitalization would help banks in the event of a sovereign default".
As for the other banking giant of our country, Unicredit, from the same conference the general manager Roberto Nicastro assured that the institute "has no problems in its activities in Central-Eastern Europe". The doubts arose after the Austrian Erste Bank, the leading bank in Central and Eastern Europe, announced heavy losses following writedowns on its sovereign bond portfolio and its holdings in Hungary and Romania. "We are not the ones you have to come and ask about Hungary - said Nicastro - we are small in Hungary".
