Banif Bank CEO insists stress tests of Portuguese banks show “more resilience” than Southern European counterparts

Silva announced this earlier this morning while he was addressing a press conference announcing that Banif Bank had won an award for Best Banking Group by prestigious banking magazine World Finance.

Pinto explained how the test conducted on BOV had shown that the Maltese banking system was “faring well and was well-capitalised”.

BOV passed the stress test conducted by the MFSA and the Central Bank with its capitalisation ratio reached 9.3%, as against a pass mark of 6% set for this exercise and an EU-wide statutory requirement of 4%.

The other major Maltese bank, HSBC Bank Malta plc’s, a subsidiary of HSBC Bank Holdings plc, whose capitalisation ratio when tested by the UK's FSA reached 10.2% in the stress tests, well above both the 6% threshold for the stress testy and the 4% regulatory minimum.

Banif Bank was not one of the four Portuguese banks chosen by the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) for the stress tests on 59 European banks, the results of which were announced last Friday evening.

The Banif Bank CEO explained how the 2010 award for Best Banking Group to Banif Bank was granted “in recognition of the bank’s financial performance, sound corporate governance and provision of innovative customer solutions that provide added value”

The World Finance Award Selection Panel (WF-ASP) had used a wide range of criteria to shortlist the nominees for the 2010 awards.

The WF-ASP had a total of 175 years’ experience in business journalism and its research team had managed to gather an exhaustive amount of information over the years prior to choosing Banif for this award, he added.

Commenting on the award, Pinto said that this was “a clear demonstration that Banif is doing things the right way and that we are succeeding in our business”.

He explained how this “important achievement” would not had been possible without the trust shown in the Bank by its clients, employees and shareholders”.

“We at Banif Malta are convinced that we are moving in the right direction and it is immensely rewarding for to see that others are acknowledging our success,” he insisted.

He thanked all Banif Malta employees “for their valid contribution that has led to this prestigious award of the Best Banking Group in Malta. This is an important landmark in our short history that will inspire us to work even harder to be more successful in the future,” F. Silva Pinto concluded.