Stress test included haircut on German debt

Europe's banking stress test included a haircut on German sovereign debt under certain conditions in its worst scenario, a German magazine reported. In the most stringent of three stress scenarios, the assumed mark-down on German government bonds was 2.3 percent, magazine Der Spiegel reported in an excerpt of an article to be published on Monday, without specifying its sources.
As part of that test, sovereign bonds of the troubled PIIGS states would see a loss in value of 20 percent in the case of Greece, 11 percent for Portugal, 8.6 percent for Ireland, 6.7 percent for Spain and 4.9 percent for Italy, Der Spiegel said. The discounts would, however, only apply to securities held in banks' short-term trading books, which are routinely appraised at market rates, and not if they are held for longer periods, the magazine reported.
Banking sources told Reuters on Wednesday that the stress tests would not include a haircut on German sovereign bonds while a mark-down of 16 to 17 percent off the market price would be applied to Greek debt.