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Days after the stress tests results of the banks in the Eurozone were revealed the failed Greek ATEbank announced it will proceed to increase its capital by an amount of between € 243 million to € 500 million. The stress tests results showed that the Agricultural Bank lacks € 242 million to pass the sample test financial difficulties. This led to the decision to raise its capital. The joint mission of the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and European Central Bank, which arrived in Athens yesterday, agreed the state to participate in the recapitalization of the Agricultural Bank to the extent of its share (77%). If the bank's management proceed to a minimum increase by € 243 million, the state's share in the recapitalization will amount to around € 185 million.

Тhe ECB еxperts in turn recommended ATEbank to sell its branches in Romania and Serbia and its share in the Greek FBBank. The bank management stated clearly that it will do anything possible to strengthen its ailing market positions and will seek to increase its share capital.

Unfortunately, the stress test did not achieve the expected effects and many economic experts have considered it soft and unrealistic. ING credit analysts, quoted by Reuters, said the test was not rigorous enough and therefore the results were “successful.” According to them the minimum level of adequate capital should be 8% rather than 6% as was in the stress test. Similar is the opinion of Deutsche Bank, according to which the 6% threshold was very low. In its criteria, the Greek banks should have much worse results than the achieved ones due to the ease of the stress test after the

J.P. Morgan, in turn, stressed that the test detects some problems in liquidity and solvency of the banking system in the European Union, particularly in the Spanish banks. Generally, the J.P. Morgan economists believe that the results will not restore investor confidence so easily. They also believe that new raise in spread-indicators may be expected soon.  

Renowned economic analyst Nouriel Roubini defined the stress test conditions as unrealistic, considering the prospects for the European economy are much more pessimistic than those presented in it.