Regulators to Release ‘Stress Test’ Results at 5pm EDT

Joint statement from Treasury Secretary Geithner, Fed Chair Bernanke, FDIC Chairwoman Bair and Comptroller John C. Dugan

The Treasury Capital Assistance Program and the Supervisory Capital Assessment Program

During this period of extraordinary economic uncertainty, the U.S. federal banking supervisors believe it to be important for the largest U.S. bank holding companies (BHCs) to have a capital buffer sufficient to withstand losses and sustain lending even in a significantly more adverse economic environment than is currently anticipated. In keeping with this aim, the Federal Reserve and other federal bank supervisors have been engaged in a comprehensive capital assessment exercise–known as the Supervisory Capital Assessment Program (SCAP)–with each of the 19 largest U.S. BHCs.

The SCAP will be completed this week and the results released publicly by the Federal Reserve Board on Thursday May 7^th, 2009 at 5pm EDT. In this release, supervisors will report–under the SCAP “more adverse” scenario, for each of the 19 institutions individually and in the aggregate–their estimates of: losses and loss rates across select categories of loans; resources available to absorb those losses; and the resulting necessary additions to capital buffers. The estimates reported by the Federal Reserve represent values for a hypothetical ‘what-if’ scenario and are not forecasts of expected losses or revenues for the firms. Any BHC needing to augment its capital buffer at the conclusion of the SCAP will have until June 8^th, 2009 to develop a detailed capital plan, and until November 9^th, 2009 to implement that capital plan.

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