Slovenia banks seen passing EU stress test: report

LJUBLJANA: Slovenia's two largest banks Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB) and Nova KBM are expected to pass the EU stress test in spite of large amount of non-performing loans, daily Finance said on Thursday.

It said non-performing loans of NLB reached 2.16 billion euros ($3.1 billion) at the end of 2010 out of total loans of 13 billion and added NKBM had non-performing loans in the value of 572 million euros at the end of March out of total loans of 4.5 billion.

NLB and NKBM, which are the only Slovenian banks that will participate in the EU stress tests this year, had no immediate comment.

Finance also said NKBM had Tier 1 capital of 8.15 percent, while NLB told Reuters in May it had Tier 1 capital of 7.8 percent and a core Tier 1 of 6.5 percent.

NLB, which barely passed the EU stress test, last year, boosted its capital by a new share issue of 250 million euros in March but Finance said NLB may need another capital hike of 250 million euros this year to meet Bank of Slovenia capital requirements.

Copyright Reuters, 2011