The Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) has in cooperation with the national supervisory authorities conducted a stress test on European banks. The stress test was applied to 91 banks in total, representing an aggregate market share of the European banking sector of more than 65 percent. The stress test includes the banks exposures to sovereign risk.

The Ministry for National Economy welcomes and acknowledges the outcome of the EU-wide stress test, which had as objective to assess the resilience of the banking system to possible adverse economic developments in the period 2010-2011 and welcomes the enhanced transparency that has been achieved with the publication of these results.

The objective of the stress test is to assess the banks strength and ability to manage economic shocks and to identify possible capital needs. In the interpretation of this outcome, the results of the adverse scenario should not be considered as representative of the current situation. A stress testing exercise does not provide forecasts of expected outcomes since the adverse scenarios are designed as "what-if" scenarios including plausible but extreme assumptions, which are therefore not very likely to materialize.

The results of the stress test in relation to the two participating Hungarian banks (OTP Bank Nyrt, FHB Jelzálogbank Nyrt.) show that the two banks pass the test requirements well above the margin.

The Ministry for National Economy is nevertheless committed to secure financial stability. Through the support measures that Hungary has introduced since the outburst of the financial crisis, the Hungarian State can act forcefully in order to manage different situations that may arise. For this purpose, Hungary has currently in place a recapitalisation scheme and a liquidity scheme, which are approved by the European Commission and extended to 31 December 2010.

For information regarding the stress test results of individual banks see Hungarian Financial Supervisory Authority website www.pszaf.hu and CEBS website www.c-ebs.org.