World Business Press Online, LONDON -

,,Only,, $75 billion must have been raised by the US banks after the stress tests. Since it is less than expected, the market confidence went up naturally. This form of evaluation should be repeated as long as banks hold toxic assets. It can be resisted after some of them pay back Troubled Asset Relief Program funds, however. They will become more independent and the tests collide with business confidentiality. In order to prevent any possible obstacles (right now, it is only speculation), the US government should put in place some guarantees allowing the tests to continue in the future. The administration invested too much of the taxpayers' money to leave the banks repeat the same mistakes and bring about the same crisis we are witnessing these days. Since we live in a globalised world, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will push in Italy his colleagues from G8 to do the same. In case of resistance, especially from Germany and France, he must stress than publicising the weaknesses of the banks did not harm them at all. On the contrary, the market appreciated openness and transparency within the sector. In the European Union, where it is widely believed that the banks have been damaged harder than their American counterparts, the tests should be even stricter. No secrecy around calculations, as we have seen in the US, should be allowed and the projections should run through 2014 at least (not only through 2010 like in the US). That ought to be a lesson from the American bank tests to the EU.

Milan Sebo