* Deputy head says tests will be 'rigorous'
* EBA under pressure to provide credible tests
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DUBLIN, April 6 (Reuters) - EU-wide stress tests being planned by the European Banking Authority will gauge how much capital banks would require if the EU economy grew 4 percentage points slower than expected, its deputy head said on Thursday.
The EBA is under pressure to provide credible tests for the 88 EU lenders involved after similar tests last year failed to reveal serious problems with Ireland's banks.
"We are very comfortable that the EU stress test is a rigorous scenario," said Thomas Huertas of the EBA, which is organising the tests.
"It involves, on an EU level, the level of GDP being fully 4 percentage points below where we expect the EU economy to be," he told a conference in Dublin.
EBA documents sent to banks to prepare for the tests required the banks to test for an adverse scenario of a 0.5 percent economic contraction in the euro area in 2011 and a 15 percent drop in European shares. [ID:nLDE7270BE]
Huertas did not give the exact GDP growth forecasts that would be used in the base and adverse scenario, but said they would be credible.
"It is in our view quite a negative scenario," he said.
"We will institute a rigorous peer review process to ensure that that adverse scenario is translated into greater probability of default and greater loss in a default as banks and national supervisors review the implications of that scenario for the banks," Huertas said.
Last year's test was regarded as a flop after only seven banks failed. All of Ireland's banks passed, despite subsequently needing a massive bailout, resulting in an EU-wide operation to rescue the country from potential default. (Writing by Conor Humphries; Editing by Toby Chopra)