Banks In Trouble, Failed CBN Stress Test

The Capital Adequacy Ratios (CARs) of three big banks have fallen below regulatory capital requirement, the result of stress test conducted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on the status of the banking system has shown.

Overall, the result of the solvency stress test indicated the potential for high contagion risk   through   unsecured   interbank   exposure   as   three banks including two Systemically Important Banks (SIBs) failed CAR after a 100 per cent default shock.

The test, contained in the Financial Stability Report, released on Wednesday by the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, classified lenders into three groups – large banks, those with assets greater than or equal to N1 trillion; medium banks with assets greater than or equal to N500 billion but less than N1 trillion and small banks with assets of less than N500 billion.

The CAR is a ratio of bank’s assets to its risks and is 10 per cent for national banks and 15 per cent for banks with international subsidiaries and 16 per cent for SIBs.

It said the baseline CAR for the banking industry, large, medium, and small banks stood at 14.78, 15.47, 12.75 and 3.14 per cent respectively.

The  banking  industry stress  test was  carried  out  at  end of December  last year and covered  23 commercial  and merchant  banks.

It also evaluated  the  resilience  of  the  banks  to credit,  liquidity, interest  rate and  contagion  risks.