Irish banks ‘must improve their capital levels’

Irish banks need to further strengthen and improve their capital levels given the risk of contagion across the eurozone banking sector, which remains as underestimated as it was prior to the financial crash of 2008.

New research has found that banks across Europe are as vulnerable to failing now as they were seven years ago, in the period directly preceding the banking collapse.

The most vulnerable banks to systemic risk are in southern European states such as Spain, Italy, and France, according to the research published in the Journal of Banking and Finance.