stress tests

The world's biggest banks - four of them British - have been told to undertake sweeping reforms, or risk failing critical stress tests.

Eight banks failed and another 16 barely passed the much-anticipated stress tests, which measured whether they would be able to survive economic shocks.

As Moody’s cut Ireland’s credit rating to junk status, European Union ministers voiced support for weak banks.

The Federal Reserve is relaxing its hold on some of the nation's biggest banks - permitting them to raise dividends or buy back shares for the first time since the financial crisis in the fall of 2008.

Sept. 8 -- Alessandro Roccati, director at Macquarie Group Ltd., talks about long-term market uncertainty in the wake of the stress tests for European banks.

Sept. 7 -- Axel Merk, president and chief investment officer of Merk Investments LLC, talks with Bloomberg's Julie Hyman about the outlook for the euro, Europe's sovereign-debt crisis and the European Union's bank stress tests and financial regulation.

Most of Europe's biggest banks passed stress tests aimed at shoring up confidence in the region's economy, officials said Friday.

July 23 -- Constance Hunter, managing director and chief economist at Aladdin Capital Management LLP, and Marcus Mabry, an editor at the New York Times, talk about European Union-wide stress tests results released today.

Here is a recap of the top news items from this week on Wall Street: 1. While stocks were not exactly responsive to results from the European bank stress tests, the news had broad implications and gave the next indication of where worldwide markets could be headed next.

Of 91 European banks, seven have failed stress tests that were conducted to measure how strong the institutions would be if the debt crisis in the region worsens sharply.

As was widely expected, Germany’s Hypo Real Estate Holding AG failed the test, while five unlisted Spanish savings banks also failed to meet the

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is seeking to counter skepticism on Europe's bank stress tests ahead of their publication, saying they are realistic.