European Union officials say just seven of 91 European banks have failed test of their financial strength. The checks were designed to see if individual banks needed to raise capital against future losses in case of a new recession. Our economics correspondent Andrew Walker reports.

The stress tests, as they are called, looked at what would happen to European banks if there were a renewed recession and a further worsening of the government debt crisis. The question was whether their capital, a kind of financial cushion, would fall below a particular threshold. Seven have failed their test - five savings banks in Spain, a German property market lender and one Greek bank. No large bank has failed. European leaders hope the test will restore confidence in the banks. But there are already questions about whether they were stringent enough.