Three German shipping banks pass ECB stress test

Hamburg

HSH Nordbank AG, the world's biggest shipping lender, passed a stress test by the European Central Bank (ECB) as a 10 billion euro (S$16.2 billion) state guarantee sheltered it from the crisis-ridden maritime industry. The ECB agreed with the Hamburg-based bank's calculation of a 10 per cent common equity Tier 1 ratio, a key measure of financial strength, in an Asset-Quality Review of balance sheets as at Dec 31, 2013, according to the results published on the central bank's website on Monday.

In the stress test, the second part of the probe, HSH exceeded the minimum CET1 ratio threshold of 5.5 per cent, scoring 6.1 per cent.