ECB’s stress test seems useless, risks credibility

European Central Bank (ECB) has taken harsh decision to not to increase Emergency Lending Assistance (ELA) to Greek banks last weekend, which has done nothing but to sour the sentiment and pushed Greece closer to the brink.

Question 1 - Dear Mr. Draghi, was it really a stress test that the bank conducted last October?

As of latest, European Central Bank (ECB) as ELA exposure of € 89 billion to Greek banks.

However, in October last year when it conducted stress test on Euro zone banks only 3 of the Greek banks had shortage of capital and total shortage would be no more than € 9 billion.

Well it looks like, the numbers are not matching Mr. Draghi.

These leaves us to speculate that there may be other weak countries and banks which might break under adverse condition.

Question 2 - Dear Mr. Draghi, what went wrong with 2012 pledge to do whatever it takes?

If one can remember, Mr. Draghi pledged to do whatever it takes to save the Euro. That promise seems to have soured as European Central Bank (ECB) has stopped the refinancing and Emergency lending assistance (ELA) to Greece and pushing the country to closer to chaos.

The above chart from ECB shows the result of the stress test, which was published in October 2014.