Factbox - Non-euro zone bank stress tests preparations by country

LONDON (Reuters) - Many of the 11 EU nations that lie outside the euro zone plan to align tests of the health of their banks closely with a European Central Bank assessment of major lenders within the currency bloc.

Below are details of domestic and standalone banks in the countries, plus national supervisors' plans for the tests, where available. Further data on the countries' banking systems is available here http://link.reuters.com/wyb64v

BULGARIA

Assets of domestic and standalone banks: 11.1 billion euros

Number of banking groups: Not available

The Bulgarian National Bank declined to provide details on preparations for their asset quality review (AQR) and stress tests.

CROATIA

Assets of domestic and standalone banks*: 52.1 billion euros

Number of banking groups*: 31

Croatia, the European Union's newest member, is "carefully studying" European Banking Union statements and will soon decide on the scope of its review, the central bank said. It declined to comment on whether it would use external consultants, but confirmed it would use the EBA's definitions on non-performing loans and forbearance.

CZECH REPUBLIC

Assets of domestic and standalone banks: 13 billion euros

Number of banking groups: 11

The Czech National Bank declined to provide details of preparations for its asset quality review and stress tests.

DENMARK

Assets of domestic and standalone banks: 806.7 billion euros

Number of banking groups: 6

Denmark will begin an AQR of its largest banking groups before the year-end and will align it with the ECB's review "to the extent possible and relevant", the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) told Reuters. External consultants are not expected to be hired. The FSA will use the EBA's definitions of forbearance and non-performing loans.

HUNGARY

Assets of domestic and standalone banks: 44.9 billion euros

Number of banking groups: 12

The Hungarian National Bank said its supervisors had actively taken part in the EBA group that worked out the methodology for the stress tests, but experts from Hungary's financial institutions had already said their banks cannot meet all of the information the EBA demands. "The EBA's standpoint in this issue is that all institutions participating in the exercise should fulfil it to the depth allowed by its systems," the central bank told Reuters. Hungary has not yet engaged external consultants and does not expect to.

LATVIA

Assets of domestic and standalone banks: 10.7 billion euros

Number of banking groups: 14

Latvia is due to join the euro zone on January 1 2014 and will carry out stress tests and AQRs "like other euro zone member states" including applying the EBA's definitions for non- performing loans and forbearance, a spokeswoman for the Financial and Capital Market Commission told Reuters. "We do not exclude the possibility to hire external advisers. However, the assessment of current situation is still going on," she added.

LITHUANIA

Assets of domestic and standalone banks*: 29.2 billion euros

Number of banking groups*: 7

Lithuania, tipped for euro zone membership in 2015, has not yet pinned down how it will contribute to the ECB's exercise and is carrying out its own exercise locally on its three major banks, the central bank's head of supervision Aldona Jočienė said. "These banks are conservatively managed, with adequate level of provisions and well capitalised," he said. "So, if there is an assessment initialised by the ECB or by the Bank of Lithuania, there should be no surprises." The bank does not plan to hire external consultants.

POLAND

Assets of domestic and standalone banks: 127.6 billion euros

Number of banking groups: 2

Poland's financial supervisor FSA said it was eager to take part in an asset quality review (AQR) that was harmonised across the euro zone and would use the same methodology as the ECB for its AQR for "comparative reasons". Poland doesn't plan to hire any consultants to help with its AQR.

ROMANIA

Assets of domestic and standalone banks: 8.5 billion euros

Number of banking groups: 10

The National Bank of Romania did not respond to Reuters queries on preparations for its AQR and stress tests.

SWEDEN

Assets of domestic and standalone banks: 1,626.4 billion euros

Number of banking groups: 15

The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) has already begun its asset quality review, and will follow the EBA's definitions on non-performing loans and forbearance, the authority told Reuters. External consultants have "not yet been engaged in the asset quality review", the FSA added.

UNITED KINGDOM

Assets of domestic and standalone banks: 7,551 billion euros

Number of banking groups: 11

The Bank of England is in the midst of an industry consultation on its approach to stress testing, with responses to a discussion paper due back by January 10. The BoE declined to comment on its engagement with the ECB's test and has not publicly said whether it will use the EBA definitions on non-performing loans and forbearance.

* Figures for Croatia and Lithuania are from their national central banks' data bases and may not be comparable with figures for the other countries, which are all sourced from the European Central Bank's Statistics Data Warehouse (SDW).

**All figures are as of end 2012.

(Reporting By Laura Noonan; Additional reporting by Sandor Peto in Budapest, Teis Jensen in Copenhagen, Zoran Radosavljevic and Igor Ilic in Zagreb, Johan Ahlander in Stockholm, Marcin Goettig in Warsaw, Jan Lopatka in Prague and Tsvetelia Tsolova in Sofia; editing by David Stamp)