Italian and Irish banks just pass

Monte dei Paschi and Allied Irish Bank are two banks that only narrowly met the six per cent minimum capital ratio.

The Italian bank already has begun raising capital initiatives, moving to sell some branches and reorganise some non-banking businesses).

Allied Irish Bank is effectively under the control of the Irish government.

The capital ratios of some larger European banks would take a dent under the stress test scenario.

Deutsche Bank's core capital ratio would fall to 9.7 per cent from 12.6.

RBS's ratio would fall to 11.2 per cent from 14.4 per cent.

ING's would fall from 10.2 per cent to 8.8 per cent.

And Rabobank's would fall from to 12.5 per cent from 14.1 per cent.

Other internationally active banks in France and Germany would also experience a decline in core capital ratios, though not by much.

Among other British banks, HSBC would see its ratio fall to 10.2 per cent from 10.7 per cent while Lloyds would see a mild dip in its ratio to 9.2 per cent.

Barclays is the odd bank out. Its business (and its current loan and trading portfolios) are structured so that tier one capital would actually rise to 13.7 per cent from 13.0 per cent under the scenarios modelled in this test.