4  BIS central bankers’ speeches  A meaningful comparison should not only include the threshold for the capital, but also the macro scenario. However, the macro scenarios for the European stress test have yet to be finalised; they are due to be published at the end of April.
But they can only reach the financial system if they are coupled with the third building block, namely the very large number of counterparties that have always been able to take part in our refinancing operations. Even before the crisis, 1,700 counterparties fulfilled all relevant criteria. This number was higher at the time than for the other major central banks.