Capital Exercise for bank: BANCO BILBAO VIZCAYA ARGENTARIA S.A. (BBVA)

On 8 December 2011, the EBA's Board of Supervisors adopted the Recommendation on the creation of temporary capital buffers to restore market confidence, stemming from the so-called "capital exercise". The Recommendation was adopted to address the difficult situation in the EU banking system, especially with regard to the sovereign exposures. It called on National Authorities to require banks included in the sample to strengthen their capital positions by building up an exceptional and temporary capital buffer against sovereign debt exposures to reflect market prices as at the end of September 2011. In addition, banks were required to establish an exceptional and temporary buffer such that the Core Tier 1 capital ratio reaches a level of 9% by the end of June 2012.