European banks are bracing for a year of intense scrutiny as regulators prepare a series of health-checks to test whether the region's lenders can withstand any future financial shocks. For Europe's strongest banks at least, price shifts in their riskiest bonds suggests some investors are already betting on upbeat results.

The extra yield-or spread-on high-grade subordinated euro financial bonds relative to a benchmark based on interbank lending rates is at the lowest since before Lehman Brothers collapsed in September 2008, according to a Markit index.