German Banks Purposefully Misled the ECB in 2014, Report Shows

In the financial world, there are a lot of developments that were never allowed to see the light of day. A new report issued by several experts confirms that the ECB was fooled by several German banks in 2014. 

Every so often, the ECB will conduct an asset quality review, or AQR.

The ECB was Misled by German Banks

During that type of audit, all member banks need to provide transparent balance sheets to determine how viable their current approach is.

As one would come to expect, several financial institutions will try to game the system accordingly. 

A new report issued by a group of financial experts seems to confirm as much.

Based on their findings, several German banks tried to make their asset balance sheet look healthier than it really is. 

Several banks purchased low-risk assets as soon as the audit was announced.

Later on, they swapped back to high-risk assets, in an effort to avoid detection for maintaining this particular approach. 

As such, it is safe to say that the German bankss in question cheated during this audit and purposefully misled the ECB.

The question now becomes what the European Central bank will do about this, assuming there will be any real repercussions.