A new report by Kevin Dowd, No Stress II: the flaws in the Bank of England’s stress testing programme, has received blanket national and regional coverage this week achieving 450 articles and broadcast interviews in total.
The Metro ran it as their front page story:
British banks are at risk of collapse as they 'sail blindly' into a new financial crisis worse than 2008, a top think tank warns in a report today.
Lenders are woefully ill-prepared for a growing economic storm in Europe, the Adam Smith Institute claims. Taxpayers may once again have to foot the bill because the Bank of England is 'asleep at the wheel', with it's checks on the sector's ability to cope with shocks dubbed 'worse than useless'.
The Guardian reported:
The Bank of England will conduct its own industry assessment later this year, which prompted the Adam Smith Institute - a free market think tank - to publish a report calling for the 'worse than useless' stress tests to be abandoned unless changes can be made.
Kevin Dowd, professor of finance and economics at Durham University and author of the report, said: "As the EU banking system goes into a renewed crisis, the UK banking system is in no fit state to withstand the storm."
The Sun reported:
Britain's banks risk collapse in a second global financial crisis, a think tank has warned. The Adam Smith Institute claims their inability to cope with economic upheaval would see taxpayers hit for a bigger bail out than in 2008.
The Daily Mirror reported:
The Bank of England has been slammed for 'falling asleep at the wheel' in the face of a looming financial crisis.
It's stress tests to gauge the health of UK banks are 'worse than useless', says a damning report from the Adam Smith Institute. It claims every UK bank would fail more rigorous tests imposed by the Federal Reserve.
City AM reported:
The Bank of England's stress testing regime is 'worse than useless' according to a new report from free market think tank the Adam Smith Institute.
The tests gave the UK's banking system a clean bill of health in 2015, but the think tank argues that the regime is riven with fundamental flaws.
I News reported:
A study by the Adam Smith Institute said the Bank's stress tests are like 'a ridiculously easy exam with a ludicrously low pass rate', which disguises the ability of UK banks to cope with an economic blow on the scale of the financial crisis of 2008.
The Daily Express reported:
In a major wake-up call to ailing Mark Carney and his beleaguered Bank of England, the Adam Smith Institute said the Bank was “sailing blindly” into a second global financial crisis.
It warned taxpayers could be forced to bail out British banks yet again as the Bank’s stress tests - used to measure robustness - are "worse than useless" and would buckle under the strain of a major economic shock.
The Mail Online reported:
The Adam Smith Institute claimed that the Bank of England’s stress tests are ‘worse than useless’ and that the UK is ‘sailing blindly into a second global financial crisis’.
The economic policy think-tank analysed the stress tests carried out by the Bank of England to assess how well UK banks would be able to weather economic storms.
Kevin Dowd appeared on Share Radio, BBC Scotland, with Ian King Live on Sky to discuss the paper which was also covered by Eamonn Holmes on Sky Sunrise, Sky and BBC paper reviews, and across a host of BBC regional radio stations.
The story also ran in over 350 regional papers and radio stations.