European Union banking supervisors on Friday named the seven banks - one German, one Greek and five Spanish - that failed "stress tests" on how they would stand up to a future economic or sovereign-debt crisis, dpa reported.
They are ATE of Greece; Hypo Real Estate of Germany; and the Spanish banking groups Cajasur, Civica, Diada, Espiga and UNNIM.
The stress tests assessed 91 large and medium-sized banks in 20 EU countries. Any bank whose proportion of top-grade Tier 1 capital would have fallen below 6 per cent of the value of its liabilities as a result of future crises was counted as having failed.
Ahead of the publication, analysts had warned that Spanish banks, in particular, were likely to face a tough ride because of their exposure to the collapsed Spanish property market.