— This is the script of CNBC's news report for China's CCTV on September 1, Monday.
Welcome to the CNBC Business Daily, I'm Qian Chen.
We bring you our special report - The World's Biggest Risks with a look at the European financials.
Concerns have been mounting over the last couple of years over the health of the sector... so just how big is this "too big to fail" problem in the Eurozone?
Nancy Hulgrave reports.
It has been a tough year for European Banks, and it doesn't look set to get any easier. US regulators have turned the litigation screws on their continental rivals, while the European Central Bank is preparing to release the results of a third round of stress testing it says will be the harshest yet. French bank BNP Paribas was the first to enter centre stage.
[James Comey, FBI Director on BNP fine] "The $9 billion that's walking out the door today is your money. We do these cases over and over again and shareholder's money walks out the door."
The bank was force to pay a record fine to US regulators for breaching US sanctions against certain countries, and it addition it was locked out of dollar clearing operations too.
[Lars Machenil, CFO, BNP Paribas] "We observed what went wrong. We basically, we definitely regret what happened. We settled with the U.S. authorities. And in particularly, we took industrial steps for it to never happen again."
And the probes kept on coming. Libor, foreign exchange, even silver price fixing all went onto the investigation list. The Swiss banks faced particular scrutiny, well known for their secrecy, and long-term targets of US probes.
[Sergio Ermotti, CEO of UBS] "We are making good progress in our investigation, matters are failing complex and we are working with relevant authorities on those issues. So we don't control timing and size and premature to speculate."
But how did the European regulators feel about American watchdogs fining their firms? The ECB trod carefully when criticising the size of some of the record fines imposed on European lenders.
[Peter Praet, ECB] "I think I will make very limited comments on this. I think what is important in these sort of decisions that have been taken from the US side, I think it's important to see what are the implications and the lesson we draw for the whole functioning for the whole financial system"
And the ECB already has its own hands full with a third round of stress tests it vows to be the toughest yet. First the asset quality review will judge banks' balance sheets, and then results of the helthchecks themselves will be released in October
[Mario Draghi, President, ECB] "Against the background of weak credit growth, the on-going comprehensive assessment of banks' balance sheets is of key importance. Banks should take full advantage of this exercise to improve their capital and solvency positions."
The main concerns remain around the peripheral banks. But the CEOs of some of Italy's largest lenders were quick to assure the market their capital positions were solid.
[Carlo Messina, Intesa Sanpaolo CEO] "We want to exit from this exercise as a clear winner amongst our European peers."
[Federico Ghizzoni, CEO, Unicredit] "We feel quite confident, both for the asset quality review and the stress test, we'll go through without any major problems. But really for the European banking sector it will be a tough exercise overall."
So will the European banks pose one of the World's Biggest Risks for 2014, or will the ECB be third time lucky and win back market confidence with its stress tests?
I'm Qian Chen, reporting from CNBC's Asian headquarters.
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