Good news everybody.. American banks are safe, secure and have passed the Geithner stress test!
From Eric Dash of the NY Times.
For the last eight weeks, nearly 200 federal examiners have labored inside some of the nation’s biggest banks to determine how those institutions would hold up if the recession deepened.
What they are discovering may come as a relief to both the financial industry and the public: the banking industry, broadly speaking, seems to be in better shape than many people think, officials involved in the examinations say.
This is just awesome news.. it looks like all of the rumors about insolvents banks were just that, rumors. Probably conjured up by some evil short sellers!
Here's the best part of the story though,
That is the good news. The bad news is that many of the largest American lenders, despite all those bailouts, probably need to be bailed out again, either by private investors or, more likely, the federal government.
....
Regulators say all 19 banks undergoing the exams will pass them. Indeed, they say this is a test that a bank simply will not fail: if the examiners determine that a bank needs "exceptional assistance," the government, that is, taxpayers, will provide it.
Here's a list of the banks that have (will) pass the Geithner stress test,
JP Morgan Chase
Bank of America
Citigroup
Wells Fargo
State Street
Bank of New York Mellon
U.S. Bancorp
SunTrust Banks
Capital One Financial
PNC
Regions Financial
BB&T
Fifth Third Bancorp
KeyCorp
MetLife
Goldman Sachs
Morgan Stanley
American Express
GMAC
These banks are awesome... triple freaking A with a PLUS. Give them a round of applause. Oh ya, while I'm writing this diary I thought I would throw this story out there just for kicks,
Banks aren't reselling many foreclosed homes
A vast "shadow inventory" of foreclosed homes that banks are holding off the market could wreak havoc with the already battered real estate sector, industry observers say.
Lenders nationwide are sitting on hundreds of thousands of foreclosed homes that they have not resold or listed for sale, according to numerous data sources. And foreclosures, which banks unload at fire-sale prices, are a major factor driving home values down.
"We believe there are in the neighborhood of 600,000 properties nationwide that banks have repossessed but not put on the market," said Rick Sharga, vice president of RealtyTrac, which compiles nationwide statistics on foreclosures. "California probably represents 80,000 of those homes.
Uh oh.