The Scariest Number Revealed Today: $1.114 Trillion In Eurozone Bad Debt

As we previously reported, the ECB’s latest stress test was once again patently flawed from the start. Why? Because as we noted earlier, in its most draconian, “adverse” scenario, the ECB simply refused to contemplate the possibility of deflation. And here’s why. Buried deep in the report, on page 75 of 178, is the following revelation which contains in it the scariest number presented to the public today.
Due to the fact that on average banks’ internal definitions were less conservative than the simplified EBA approach, the application of the simplified approach led to an increase in NPE stock of 54.6 billion from 743.1 billion to 797.7 billion. The CFR and the projection of findings led to an additional increase in NPE of 81.3 billion, resulting in a total increase 135.9 billion to 879.1 billion of post-CFR NPEs across the participating banks as a result of the AQR. The impact of the application of the EBA simplified approach and the credit file review on the stock of NPEs varied amongst debtor geographies, with overall increases among SSM debtor geographies ranging from 7% to 116%.

This post was published at Zero Hedge on 10/26/2014.