US May Release Stress Test Results for Specific Banks

U.S. officials are leaning toward announcing the "stress test" results of individual banks next week instead of just summary results, a source familiar with administration talks said Thursday.

The source, speaking anonymously because talks are ongoing, also said officials will likely release the capital requirements of the 19 firms at their holding company level, not just the needs of their banking units.

Some of the banks being tested, such as Bank of America, have large non-bank subsidiaries that were included in the assessments, the source said.

Regulators have stress-tested the 19 largest U.S. banks to determine their capital needs should economic conditions deteriorate further. The source said the announcement of the results has been pushed back, possibly to May 6.

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The plan on exactly how to release the results "is not very far along," the source said, adding that regulators are looking to disclose a lot of supervisory information about banks that is usually kept confidential.

The stress-test program has evolved since the Treasury Department announced in February that it was embarking on the exams as a way to learn what additional help the top banks might need.

Officials said at the time the banks would learn how much extra capital regulators wanted them to have, and then they would have six months to raise that amount in the private market or could tap a new government capital facility.

Since then, the market appetite for the results has reached a fever pitch, forcing the Treasury Department to rethink its plan to keep detailed results of individual banks private.

The source said officials are well aware of the market's sensitivity to the information, evidenced by the punishment some bank stocks have endured from leaked reports of the results and outside analysts' versions of the tests.

"Everyone's being very sensitive," the source said.

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The government gave their preliminary results to the banks on Friday, and regulators are now negotiating the results and any capital recovery plans with the banking companies.

See below for a full list of the institutions undergoing stress tests.

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