EU Banks Face Cyprus Stress Test (Update 1)

Updated to include Eurogroup commentary.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Fragile European banking conglomerates are facing a stress test of their own, after European officials offered a $13 billion bank bailout plan to Cyprus that's created risks of depositor flight.

The terms of the bailout and investor skepticism may test whether EU-based banks have the financial strength to withstand a return to economic stress, or whether difficulty in raising capital keeps regional lenders in a vulnerable position .

The Eurozone banking sector fears come just a week after the Federal Reserve gave U.S. lenders a relatively clean bill of health on stress tests, which sought to check that banks would have the capital to withstand a new financial downturn.

A crisis scenario may be developing in Europe, on the heels of Cyprus' harsh proposed bailout.

Eurozone finance ministers agreed Saturday on a bailout plan for Cyprus that requires a levy of a 9.9% tax on bank accounts with balances above EUR100,000 and those with less that amount to be taxed at a 6.75% to raise EUR5.8 billion for the near-bankrupt nation.

The tax on large deposits has been taken by economists as a bail-in of hot money Russian bank accounts in Cypress, while the tax against smaller accounts may prove more problematic for depositor confidence throughout the EU.

Both taxes have created fears of a run on the island-nation's banks and raises concerns that similar moves in countries like Italy could push the European banking system back into a state of emergency.

Since the European Central Bank offered nearly $1 trillion in guarantees to buy EU government bonds in the fall of 2011, pressures on the balance sheets of regional lenders and peripheral nations have fallen sharply.

Through the day Monday, markets reversed from early losses to gains as investors questioned whether the bailout terms would have wider ramifications.

Late on Monday the Eurogroup said it might reconsider the extent of depositor levy.