The ECB intends to extend the stress tests on the quality and riskiness of bank credit and on the resilience of banks in the event of a crisis, which currently concern only the big credit companies, also to medium-level banks which are now under the direct supervision of the national central banks. Frankfurt would like to better test a hundred banks with assets of less than 30 billion euros: a hundred in Europe and a dozen in Italy. In the latter case, in obvious collaboration with the Bank of Italy.
The list of institutions that will have to undergo the new strict tests will be defined with an eye to size, risk levels and interconnections (whether the banks act as financial market infrastructures or as payment system providers).
According to reliable forecasts, the new Italian banks that will enter the ECB stress test area should be Credito Valtellinese, Credem, Banca Sella, Banca Mediolanum, Banca Popolare di Bari, ICBPI, Banca Popolare dell'Etruria (which however today it is a commissariat and which therefore could be excluded from the same tests), the Banco di Desio and the Volksbank,
to which Unipol Banca and CariAsti could be added.
In the spring, the list of Italian companies could grow longer and also include some Bccs, certainly including the largest, namely the Bcc of Rome.
