ROME (Reuters) - The capital shortfalls revealed at some banks in a Europe-wide health check of lenders are just the "tip of the iceberg", a senior European Central Bank official said on Wednesday, suggesting deeper problems could lie ahead.
Ignazio Angeloni, a member of the ECB Supervisory Board, said that while this year's regulatory checks on banks had focussed on capital levels, ECB supervisors would now look at "the roots of the problems".
"This has to do with business models, the business context, corporate governance, banks' internal control systems, the management of credit risk and operational risk," Angeloni said in a speech at a banking conference in Rome.
"We also have to consider that in many cases the shortfall is just the tip of the iceberg," he said.
After subjecting European banks to year-long "stress tests" of their balance sheets, the ECB is now planning a deeper examination to see whether their businesses are sufficiently profitable, efficient and well-run.
Thirteen banks, including four in Italy, failed the ECB tests - whose results were published at the end of October - and need to fill a total 9.5-billion euro capital hole, although some have already taken measures to plug the deficit.
Italy's Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MI:BMPS) emerged as the bank with the biggest outstanding shortfall, of 2.1 billion euros, and like other banks has submitted a plan to the ECB explaining how it will bridge the gap.
Angeloni said that the ECB had asked some of the banks that had presented a capital plan to make "adjustments".
Euro zone banks that failed or barely passed this year's health checks will have to demonstrate they can make sustainable profits and may even need to sell off loss-making units, the ECB's top banking supervisor told Reuters last month.
Daniele Nouy added that simply finding more capital to plug shortfalls uncovered by the stress tests may not be enough.
(Reporting by Stefano Bernabei; Writing by Silvia Aloisi; Editing by Pravin Char)