FRANKFURT: The European Central Bank said Wednesday it would test lenders’ response to cyberattacks this year in a first of a kind stress test for banks in the eurozone.

The critical scenario set out by the ECB assumes that the bank has been “hit by successful cyberattack that disrupts their daily operations”, the ECB said in a statement.

Some 109 banks would be tested on their means to “respond to and recover from a cyberattack, rather than their ability to prevent it”, the ECB said. The exercise will examine financial institutions’ emergency procedures and their plans to restore normality after such an attack.

A subset of 28 banks from across the eurozone would be subjected to a more rigorous test that would take a closer look at the risks of cyberattacks spilling over into other areas. The results of the exercise, which will be published later this year, would not have an impact on banks’ obligations to build capital buffers against financial risks, the ECB said.

The ECB runs stress tests on the banks it supervises every year to evaluate their preparedness to handle adverse events. While most tests have focused on adverse economic and financial scenarios, the ECB has also run a climate stress test on banks.