Fed to Approve Bank Dividend Hikes Friday: Report

The Federal Reserve will inform some U.S. banks on Friday that they passed a new round of stress tests, giving them the green light to raise dividends for the first time since the financial crisis, the Wall Street Journal said Thursday.

The U.S. Government will not be making any public comments about specific banks, a contrast to the full disclosures it made in 2009 during an earlier round of tests. It sent banks a two-page memo Wednesday restricting banks from discussing how they fared in the tests, according to sources familiar with the matter, the newspaper said.

The latest round of tests highlight the government’s leverage in the banking industry since its intervention at the height of the financial crisis.

The Fed’s lack of transparency has been seen by banks and analysts as instilling uncertainty in the stock market.