Eye on the Bailout

The "Stress Test" 19

In February of 2009, regulators began performing "stress tests" on the nation's 19 largest banks in an effort to see how much more money they need to survive a steep economic downturn. Testing the bank's assets against a pessimistic economic scenario, regulators established whether the bank needed an "additional capital buffer". The results were announced on May 7.

The 19 companies, the taxpayer money already invested in them, and the results of the stress tests are shown below. The "capital buffer" is the amount of money regulators decided each institution required to withstand the downturn envisioned under the tests. In all but one case (GMAC), the companies were able to satisfy this requirement by raising capital privately.

 Although they are included in the list because they are technically organized as banks, the companies include one insurance company (MetLife) and a few companies that only recently converted to banks (such as American Express).

See the entire recipients list

Name Capital Buffer Required Bailout Amount
American Express $0
$3.4 billion
Bank of America
Received other federal aid. Click to see details.
$33.9 billion
$45 billion
Bank of New York Mellon $0
$3 billion
BB&T $0
$3.1 billion
Capital One Financial Corp. $0
$3.6 billion
Citigroup
Received other federal aid. Click to see details.
$5.5 billion
$45 billion
Fifth Third Bancorp $1.1 billion
$3.4 billion
GMAC $11.5 billion
$16.3 billion
Goldman Sachs $0
$10 billion
JPMorgan Chase $0
$25 billion
KeyCorp $1.8 billion
$2.5 billion
Morgan Stanley $1.8 billion
$10 billion
PNC Financial Services $600 million
$7.6 billion
Regions Financial Corp. $2.5 billion
$3.5 billion
State Street $0
$2 billion
SunTrust $2.2 billion
$4.9 billion
U.S. Bancorp $0
$6.6 billion
Wells Fargo $13.7 billion
$25 billion
MetLife $0
$0

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