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March 21, 2014 at 01:06 PM
The Federal Reserve’s annual stress tests found 29 of the 30 largest U.S. banks could withstand a deep recession and still pay dividends, fueling speculation about which firms will win approval next week to raise payouts.
Zions Bancorporation is the only lender that came in below one of the Fed’s main capital thresholds in results released today by the central bank that simulated a severe economic slump. All 30 firms, including Salt Lake City-based Zions, topped the minimum in a separate scenario of rising interest rates. The Fed said capital levels have improved since the 2008 financial crisis and the largest banks are better positioned to lend and meet their financial commitments.
“The average person who relies on the banking system should be happy,” said Dan Ryan, head of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP’s global financial regulation practice, calling the financial system safe. “Next week will tell us whether banks and bank shareholders will be happy.”
The Fed runs an annual two-part stress test required under the Dodd-Frank Act to ensure banks have enough capital and cash to withstand shocks that may threaten their survival. The goal is to head off a recurrence of taxpayer-funded bailouts as in 2008, when government rescues averted the collapse of some of the world’s largest lenders. Firms that fail a second round of tests released next week may have to forgo stock buybacks and higher dividends.
Projected Losses
Total projected loan losses for all 30 banks differed widely between the two scenarios. Under the adverse scenario of rising rates, banks lose $267 billion on all loans, including credit cards, commercial real estate, and mortgages. Under the severely adverse conditions, loan losses total almost $100 billion more, or $366 billion.
Fed supervisors this year scrutinized risks from litigation, counterparty failure, and high-yield loans as they guide banks toward higher capital buffers against financial and economic shocks.
Banks can’t pass or fail the test released today, which doesn’t take into account management actions to preserve capital. In the second round of tests released March 26, regulators will judge whether those actions, such as dividend cuts, keep banks above the minimum Tier 1 common ratio of 5 percent over nine quarters in harsh economic scenarios.
Stocks Advance
Investors bid up bank stocks before today’s results were released after the official close of trading. The KBW Bank Index, which includes 24 of the largest lenders, rose 2.2 percent for its best showing since Nov. 8 and its highest close since September 2008. Zions led gainers with a 3.2 percent increase, JPMorgan Chase & Co. added 3.1 percent and Bank of New York Mellon Corp. advanced 3 percent. They were little changed in after-hours trading.
Fed officials have cautioned that even banks that exceeded all the thresholds in today’s test may still find their requests for higher payouts rejected next week if regulators find the quality of the planning is flawed. The scrutiny can extend to management, systems and even boards of directors.
The bar on capital for the largest banks will continue to rise for the next several years, a Fed official said on a conference call with reporters. The official cited international agreements among regulators and the central bank’s own increasing demands for better risk management.
Five Ratios
The test included five regulatory ratios, and among the six largest U.S. banks, Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley’s levels slid closest to the regulatory minimum in the Fed’s worst-case scenario. The firms came within 1 percentage point of falling below the 4 percent minimum on the Tier 1 leverage ratio under the “severely adverse” version, with Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America’s ratio at 4.6 percent and New York-based Morgan Stanley’s at 4.7 percent.
Plans for higher dividends and buybacks still could pass muster next week because analysts have predicted the two firms will ask the Fed for less than the full amount they would be mathematically entitled to pay.
Bank of America’s $2.13 trillion in average total assets shows it could return about $12.8 billion to investors without falling below the leverage threshold, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The lender may have requested an average $7.2 billion payout over the next 12 months, according to four analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
