When the European Central Bank stress tested its 130 largest banks for soundness, financial markets breathed a sigh of relief because all of the biggest banks made the grade, with smaller banks showing mostly fixable deficiencies. But just how stressful were those tests, and how meaningful are the results? And does a clean bill of health for most of the banks mean they will crank up lending now and help pull the eurozone out of its six-year economic malaise? To find out, Knowledge at Wharton interviewed Wharton finance professor Richard J. Herring . An edited transcript follows: Knowledge at Wharton: Could you tell us a bit about the background behind these tests and what they might mean? Richard J. Herring: It’s an interesting lineage. To see the inspiration for it all, you really need to turn back to 2009 in the United States. Most people now mark that as the turning point in our crisis where we regained confidence in banks, and it was a similar exercise.…