Biggest Banks Need $75 Billion More

by Dollars and Sense

The results of the "stress tests" are in.

According to the results, the biggest banks need $75 billion in additional capital to ride out a "prolonged downturn" (as opposed to whatever it was we've just been through and all the money we've loaned out).

The Washington Post has a handy chart here. The biggest potential losers are Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and GMAC.

However, according to former banking regulator and S&L scandal prosecutor William Black, the tests are a "complete sham" that don't go nearly far enough. If they really tested banks properly they would show a collective hole of $2 Trillion (yes, capital "t"), and force banks to massively increase their capitalization rates.

Read the article here and the interview here, as well as Black's amazing article for D&S way back from 2007.

--d.f.

Labels: bank stress testing, banking crisis, banking system, Daniel Fireside, stress tests, William Black, William K. Black

 

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5/07/2009 05:57:00 PM