diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 8aa781bee..3f07cc511 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -38,8 +38,8 @@ before_script:
 script:
   # Keep the legacy setup.py test approach of checking coverage for python2
   - if [[ "$F2B_PY_2" ]]; then coverage run setup.py test; fi
-  # Coverage doesn't pick up setup.py test with python3, so run it directly
-  - if [[ "$F2B_PY_3" ]]; then coverage run bin/fail2ban-testcases; fi
+  # Coverage doesn't pick up setup.py test with python3, so run it directly (with same verbosity as from setup)
+  - if [[ "$F2B_PY_3" ]]; then coverage run bin/fail2ban-testcases --verbosity=2; fi
   # Use $VENV_BIN (not python) or else sudo will always run the system's python (2.7)
   - sudo $VENV_BIN/pip install .
   # Doc files should get installed on Travis under Linux
diff --git a/bin/fail2ban-testcases b/bin/fail2ban-testcases
index 4a93ac955..cfd95055d 100755
--- a/bin/fail2ban-testcases
+++ b/bin/fail2ban-testcases
@@ -61,6 +61,10 @@ def get_opt_parser():
 			   choices=('heavydebug', 'debug', 'info', 'notice', 'warning', 'error', 'critical'),
 			   default=None,
 			   help="Log level for the logger to use during running tests"),
+		Option('-v', "--verbosity", action="store",
+			   dest="verbosity", type=int,
+			   default=None,
+			   help="Set numerical level of verbosity (0..4)"),
 		Option("--log-direct", action="store_false",
 			   dest="log_lazy",
 			   default=True,
diff --git a/fail2ban/tests/utils.py b/fail2ban/tests/utils.py
index 232da780b..764536bf6 100644
--- a/fail2ban/tests/utils.py
+++ b/fail2ban/tests/utils.py
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ os.putenv('PYTHONPATH', os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(
 class DefaultTestOptions(optparse.Values):
 	def __init__(self):
 		self.__dict__ = {
-			'log_level': None, 'log_lazy': True, 
+			'log_level': None, 'verbosity': None, 'log_lazy': True, 
 			'log_traceback': None, 'full_traceback': None,
 			'fast': False, 'memory_db': False, 'no_gamin': False,
 			'no_network': False, 'negate_re': False
@@ -78,15 +78,17 @@ def initProcess(opts):
 	logSys = getLogger("fail2ban")
 
 	# Numerical level of verbosity corresponding to a log "level"
-	verbosity = {'heavydebug': 4,
-				 'debug': 3,
-				 'info': 2,
-				 'notice': 2,
-				 'warning': 1,
-				 'error': 1,
-				 'critical': 0,
-				 None: 1}[opts.log_level]
-	opts.verbosity = verbosity
+	verbosity = opts.verbosity
+	if verbosity is None:
+		verbosity = {'heavydebug': 4,
+					 'debug': 3,
+					 'info': 2,
+					 'notice': 2,
+					 'warning': 1,
+					 'error': 1,
+					 'critical': 0,
+					 None: 1}[opts.log_level]
+		opts.verbosity = verbosity
 
 	if opts.log_level is not None: # pragma: no cover
 		# so we had explicit settings