Thursday, November 18, 2010

Stress Tests: Round 2

See the link below for more information from the Wall Street Journal on the Fed's new round of stress testing for the banks.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704648604575620732161392908.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories

The main part of the article I read was:

“The Federal Reserve will require all 19 banks that underwent stress tests during the height of the financial crisis to undergo another review of their capital and their ability to absorb losses under an “adverse” economic scenario.

The Fed, in guidance issued today, said all 19 banks must submit capital plans by early next year showing their ability to absorb losses under a set of conditions to be determined by the central bank.

The request is part of the Fed’s effort to step up supervision at the nation’s largest financial firms.”

To me, the Fed is clearly seeing something that Wall Street does not.  I think they know the housing market is now rolling over again.  Ben Bernanke has implemented QE2 in case he needs to buy some mortgage backed securties to shore up the credit markets.  He wants to avoid a repeat of Q4 2008. 
That’s a good thing if you ask me.

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