By Anna Willard
LECCE, Italy, June 13 (Reuters) - Group of Eight finance ministers ducked a commitment to publishing bank stress tests on Saturday despite calls for Europe to follow North America's lead and release the test results.
The tests -- aimed at verifying how ready a bank is to resist major shocks -- were one of the more controversial subjects at the two-day meeting.
The United States and Canada have pushed for the Europeans to follow their lead and publish more detail on the state of their banks but a consensus on the best method and on whether test results should be published remained out of reach.
Deputies preparing the communique, which avoided any reference to the tests, debated the issue late into the night, officials said.
But ministers said while they had not agreed on the method or whether the results should be published, they saw eye to eye on the central goal of cleaning up the financial sector.
'I'm much less frustrated given conversations we've had last night and today in Lecce,' Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said in a press conference after the meeting.
'There is an agreement that stress tests are important and they will be carried out...There is some disagreement on the way that stress test results should be reported. But there is a commitment to do stress testing.'
'The Europeans are taking a slightly different approach to their banking system. What matters of course is what works,' U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said in an interview with the BBC after the meeting.
'And I think our basic approach is to try to make sure we're all committed to keeping at it till we're confident we have a recovery in place and a financial system that is working again.'
French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said the ministers had asked the Financial Stability Board to provide guidance on way to carry out the evaluations so that easy comparisons could be made.
NOTHING TO HIDE
European officials say they carry out regular stress tests on their banks and have nothing to hide.
'We were able to explain ourselves on the valuation methods of the tests that were described and on the fact that we are not trying to hide things under the carpet,' Lagarde said.
'Each one is working to their own calendars...methods, and I think we agreed on the aims.'
However, there is disagreement among European countries about whether the results should be published.
'We are debating it currently among Europeans to see if it would be by country, if we do it all at the same moment, if we publish only the criteria, if we do the criteria and the results,' Lagarde said.
The French have backed moving forward with publishing some of the results, but Germany has said that it does not want to give out details.
'The European position is yes, but no publishing of individual reports for banks,' said German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck.
European leaders will meet in Brussels on June 18-19 and an official said the discussion on stress tests was likely to continue there.
'In Europe we haven't started to talk together about stress tests either national or European, secret or public,' said Italian Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti.
In Europe stress tests are carried out by national supervisors, the European Central Bank and the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS).
(Editing by Patrick Graham) Keywords: G8/STRESSTESTS (jo.winterbottom@thomsonreuters.com; +39 02 66129 442; Reuters messaging: jo.winterbottom.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
LECCE, Italy, June 13 (Reuters) - Group of Eight finance ministers ducked a commitment to publishing bank stress tests on Saturday despite calls for Europe to follow North America's lead and release the test results.
The tests -- aimed at verifying how ready a bank is to resist major shocks -- were one of the more controversial subjects at the two-day meeting.
The United States and Canada have pushed for the Europeans to follow their lead and publish more detail on the state of their banks but a consensus on the best method and on whether test results should be published remained out of reach.
Deputies preparing the communique, which avoided any reference to the tests, debated the issue late into the night, officials said.
But ministers said while they had not agreed on the method or whether the results should be published, they saw eye to eye on the central goal of cleaning up the financial sector.
'I'm much less frustrated given conversations we've had last night and today in Lecce,' Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said in a press conference after the meeting.
'There is an agreement that stress tests are important and they will be carried out...There is some disagreement on the way that stress test results should be reported. But there is a commitment to do stress testing.'
'The Europeans are taking a slightly different approach to their banking system. What matters of course is what works,' U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said in an interview with the BBC after the meeting.
'And I think our basic approach is to try to make sure we're all committed to keeping at it till we're confident we have a recovery in place and a financial system that is working again.'
French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said the ministers had asked the Financial Stability Board to provide guidance on way to carry out the evaluations so that easy comparisons could be made.
NOTHING TO HIDE
European officials say they carry out regular stress tests on their banks and have nothing to hide.
'We were able to explain ourselves on the valuation methods of the tests that were described and on the fact that we are not trying to hide things under the carpet,' Lagarde said.
'Each one is working to their own calendars...methods, and I think we agreed on the aims.'
However, there is disagreement among European countries about whether the results should be published.
'We are debating it currently among Europeans to see if it would be by country, if we do it all at the same moment, if we publish only the criteria, if we do the criteria and the results,' Lagarde said.
The French have backed moving forward with publishing some of the results, but Germany has said that it does not want to give out details.
'The European position is yes, but no publishing of individual reports for banks,' said German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck.
European leaders will meet in Brussels on June 18-19 and an official said the discussion on stress tests was likely to continue there.
'In Europe we haven't started to talk together about stress tests either national or European, secret or public,' said Italian Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti.
In Europe stress tests are carried out by national supervisors, the European Central Bank and the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS).
(Editing by Patrick Graham) Keywords: G8/STRESSTESTS (jo.winterbottom@thomsonreuters.com; +39 02 66129 442; Reuters messaging: jo.winterbottom.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.