Banks braced for BoE stress test results

Royal Bank of Scotland saw the biggest failure last years annual health check and had to bolster its financial strength by £2bn.

Banks braced for BoE stress test results

Banks are bracing themselves for the release of the Bank of England's annual stress tests tomorrow after a number struggled to pass last year.

Royal Bank of Scotland saw the biggest failure in the BoE's annual health check which resulted in the bank having to bolster its financial strength by £2bn.

Two other banks, Barclays and Standard Chartered, also struggled in the stress tests, which were based on hypothetical scenarios including house prices falling and the global economy contracting by 1.9%.

But this year it is even tougher. The Bank issimulating a 4.7% fall in UK GDP, a global decrease in world GDP of 2.4%, unemployment of 9.5%, house prices crashing by a third (33%) and interest rates hitting 4%.

The Bank first introduced the stress tests back in 2014 as it looked to ensure that the UK would not face the same issues it did following the last financial crash.

Each lender has its own pass rate and the BoE will announce how each has coped with the tests on Tuesday.