The European Central Bank will subject 109 banks to a stress test to examine their resilience to and recovery from cyberattacks. The results of the research will be presented this summer.

“This exercise looks at how banks respond to and recover from a cyber attack, not whether banks are able to prevent such an attack.” The European Central Bank said. According to the Universal Banking Organization, the starting point is a successful cyberattack; This is affecting the normal functioning of banks and emergency protocols are being tested to see if banks can quickly resume their daily activities.

The European Central Bank also announced an in-depth investigation into 28 banks. In this sample, different types of banks in different locations are asked to provide additional information about their response to a cyberattack. In this way, European banks should be able to learn more from each other.

The ECB runs approximately 113 “significant European banks”, including Dutch banks ING, ABN AMRO, De Nederlandsche Bank, De Volksbank and Rabobank. The umbrella organization says it wants to maintain the stability of the European banking sector. The European Union body announced the stress test in March 2023 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. At the time there was talk of a test for large banks only.