Paschi May Fail Bank Stress Test, Credit Suisse Says (Update1)
                         July 08, 2010, 11:22 AM EDT                                                    
                                            
                                                                                     (Updates with share prices in seventh  paragraph, adds HSBC comment in 14th.)
 By Niklas Magnusson
      July 8 (Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Postbank AG, Banca  Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA and most of Greece’s largest lenders are  the only publicly traded banks that may fail European stress tests and  be forced to raise capital, Credit Suisse Group AG said.
      An economic downturn combined with losses on  government bonds would force Deutsche Postbank to raise 1.36 billion  euros ($1.72 billion) in capital to meet Tier 1 capital requirements of 6  percent, while Banca Monte dei Paschi would need 592 million euros,  Credit Suisse analysts led by Daniel Davies wrote in a note to clients  today. National Bank of Greece SA, Piraeus Bank SA, Agricultural Bank of  Greece SA and TT Hellenic Postbank SA would together need a total of  2.61 billion euros, it said.
      “Across our coverage universe, we see little  chance of any of the large non-Greek banks failing a stress test,”  Credit Suisse said in the note. “Greek banks would only fail in the  event of a severe haircut on their sovereign-debt holdings.”
      Piraeus spokesman George Marinopoulos wasn’t  immediately able to comment. Calls to National Bank, Agricultural Bank  and Deutsche Postbank went unanswered and Banca Monte dei Paschi di  Siena declined to comment.
      The tests on 91 of Europe’s banks are designed to  assess how they will be able to absorb losses on loans and government  bonds, the Committee of European Banking Supervisors said late  yesterday. Lenders that account for 65 percent of the European Union  banking industry will be tested, including 14 German banks, 27 Spanish  savings banks, six Greek banks, five Italian banks, four French banks  and four British banks, CEBS said.
                           Greek Haircut
      Regulators have told lenders the assessments may  assume a loss of about 17 percent on Greek government debt, 3 percent on  Spanish bonds and none on German debt, said two people briefed on the  talks who declined to be identified because the details are private. The  results are due to be released on July 23.
      Deutsche Postbank shares declined 0.6 percent to  24.54 euros at 4:51 p.m. in Frankfurt trading, while Banca Monte dei  Paschi was little changed at 97 euro cents. National Bank of Greece rose  5.5 percent to 9.6 euros and Piraeus Bank gained 2.9 percent to 3.87  euros on the Athens stock exchange.
      In its tests of European banks, Credit Suisse  used a “comprehensive mark-to-market approach” in which it assumed that  the regulators will require all sovereign-debt portfolios to be marked  to the current credit default swap curve, minus 3 percent, rather than  imposing “quantitative haircuts.” In a scenario only taking into account  the impact of sovereign debt losses and excluding a macro-economic  downturn, only Piraeus and Agricultural Bank would need to raise new  capital, it said.
                      ‘Significant Stresses’
      “No bank in our coverage universe ends up  requiring recapitalization to meet a 6 percent headline Tier 1 hurdle  rate, except ATE and Piraeus,” Credit Suisse said. Publicly traded banks  have “small enough sovereign exposure and large enough Tier 1 capital  to withstand significant stresses.”
      The Greek banks included in the stress tests are  National Bank of Greece SA, the country’s largest lender, EFG Eurobank  Ergasias SA, the second-largest, Alpha Bank SA, Piraeus, Agricultural  Bank and TT Hellenic Postbank SA.
      “On our calculations, Alpha Bank and Bank of  Cyprus appear to be the least impacted, whereas National Bank of Greece  and Piraeus could suffer the most,” HSBC Pantelakis Securities SA  analyst Dimitris Haralabopoulos said in a note to clients today.
                         Capital Shortfall
      A 17 percent haircut to the value of Greek  government bonds would shave some 30 percent, or 7.5 billion euros, off  the equity and capital of the Greek and Cypriot banks included in the  stress tests, Haralabopoulos said. That would lead to a decline of about  3 percentage points to their Tier 1 ratio, leaving it just below 8  percent, compared with 10.7 percent in the first quarter of this year,  said Haralabopoulos.
      The capital shortfall resulting from such a  haircut would only “be sizeable” if the banks are forced to maintain a  10 percent Tier 1 capital ratio, Haralabopoulos said. In such a  scenario, the Cypriot and Greek banks included in the tests would lack  as much as 5.8 billion euros in capital, he said.
      “In any case the Financial Stability Fund,  created as part of the 110 billion-euro European Union/International  Monetary Fund bailout package for Greece, has been designed to inject up  to 10 billion euros in capital to the sector, if needed,”  Haralabopoulos said. “Hence the FSF would more than cover the estimated  impact to our universe’s capital from the application of a 16 to 17  percent haircut to Greek government bonds.”
      Tier 1 ratios measure a bank’s ability to absorb  losses.
      Some analysts have a more downbeat assessment of  European banks’ ability to withstand losses on loans and sovereign debt.
                           Allied Irish
      Deutsche Bank AG analyst Matt Spick in London  said a number of banks, including Allied Irish Banks Plc and Bank of  Ireland Plc, Germany’s Commerzbank AG, Greece’s National Bank and  Eurobank and Italy’s Banca Monte dei Paschi die Siena and Banco Popolare  SC may fail the European stress tests because they wouldn’t meet the  required Tier 1 ratio of 6 percent.
      The scenario being tested by European regulators  on 91 European banks “assumes a 3 percentage point deviation of gross  domestic product” for the EU compared with the European Commission’s  forecasts and a “deterioration of sovereign risk” affecting government  bonds, according to the CEBS statement.
      “We expect most of the listed banks we cover to  pass a stress test, even one that includes some sovereign default,” MF  Global analysts led by Simon Maughan said in a note today, citing  factors such as capital and profitability as well as sovereign debt.  “Those at greatest risk of failing” include Bank of Ireland and Banco  Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA, they said.
***
Stress test ...