FRANKFURT: The European Central Bank on Sunday releases the results of an unprecedented health check of eurozone banks before assuming the role of the region's banking supervisor next month.
The ECB takes on its new watchdog role on November 4 and it hopes that a "comprehensive assessment" -- made up of a so-called asset quality review (AQR) and a "stress test" -- will uncover any potentially nasty surprises beforehand.
After all, previous banking stress tests in Europe, the latest in 2011, failed to expose serious problems in a number of key financial institutions. In fact, some were given a clean bill of health only to need rescuing just months later.
So this time round there is a great deal at stake, not least the ECB's reputation, and confidence in the eurozone banking sector as a whole.
The ECB will publish the results of the audit -- which will put under the microscope the balance sheets of some 130 banks accounting for 82 percent of total banking assets in 19 countries (the eurozone plus Lithuania) -- at noon (11:00 GMT).
At the same time in London, the European Banking Authority (EBA) will publish the results of its own stress test for the wider EU.
Those tests run the banks through two different economic scenarios to see if their balance sheets are healthy enough to withstand further economic shocks.
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