花旗等四家银行未能通过压力测试

    美国联邦储备委员会（Federal Reserve）宣称，美国最大的银行中大部分都已有能力抵御新一轮的深度衰退。但是，还有四家银行仍需努力。

    美联储在周二发布的压力测试结果中表示，美国最大的19家金融公司中有15家已有充足的资本可应付极端情形下可能出现的损失：极端情形包括高达13%的失业率、股市下跌50%以及房价继续下跌21%。联合金融公司（Ally Financial）、花旗集团（Citigroup)和太阳信托银行（SunTrust）这三家银行在这样极端不利的情形下，可能需要从投资者或政府手中获得新资本。第四家金融公司、大都会人寿（Metlife）可能也需要获得帮助。美联储的一位高级官员称，所有这4家公司都需要提交计划，详细说明它们打算如何扩充资本，提高自身抵御经济下滑冲击的能力。

    花旗自称仍处于全球资本金最充足的大银行之列。不过，它同时也表示，无法像原先希望的那样增加派息，并会向美联储提交一份修改后的资本计划。联合金融公司则称，公司支持进行压力测试，但不同意美联储预设的很多假设，包括夸大该行潜在的按揭贷款损失。记者未能联系到太阳信托银行对此发表评论。大都会人寿则称，对保险公司和银行采用同样的测试有失公允。

    总之，美联储称，（在极端不利的情形下，）美国最大的19家银行总损失可能高达5,340亿美元。其中主要来自不良贷款和“国际金融市场震荡”造成的交易损失。美联储称，大部分银行有能力消化这些损失，因为自2009年初以来，它们已经累计筹集资本超过3,000亿美元。一位美联储高级官员称：“过去三年里，银行业的资本状况已得到了很大的改善。”

    作为衡量一家银行健康与否的一项关键指标，这些美国大银行的一级普通股权益资本充足率可能平均从最近的10.1%下降到了6.3%。美联储通常将该指标高于5%视为一家银行状况良好。联合金融公司在美联储此次压力测试中表现最差。美联储称，其资本充足率可能已经降至监管下限的一半。美国最大的6家银行中，富国银行（Wells Fargo）在此次测试中表现最佳，其资本充足率为6%。

    美联储称，这次压力测试的依据是极端不利的情形，并不是现实的经济前景。自从金融危机爆发以来，这是美联储首次发布有关银行业金融健康状况的详尽测试结果。

    译者：早稻米

    The Federal Reserve said a majority of the nation's largest banks would be able to weather another deep recession. Four banks, though, have more work to do.

    In the stress test results it released on Tuesday afternoon, the Fed said that 15 of the nation's 19 largest financial firms have enough capital to cover losses under extreme circumstances: an unemployment rate of 13%, a 50% decline in stock prices and another 21% in housing prices. Three banks - Ally Financial, Citigroup (C) and SunTrust (STI) - would likely need new capital from either investors or the government in the Fed's adverse economic scenario. A fourth financial firm, insurer Metlife (MET), would likely be in need of assistance as well. A senior official at the Fed said all four of the banks would need to submit plans that would detail how they would increase their capital to make them less vulnerable in a downturn.

    Citigroup said it remains among the best capitalized large banks in the world. However, it said it would not be able to raise its dividend as it hoped, and would submit a revised capital plan to the Fed. Ally said it supported the idea of stress tests, but it disagreed with a number of the assumptions the Fed made, including overstating the bank's potential mortgage losses. Suntrust could not be reached for comment. Metlife said it was unfair to apply the same tests to insurers as it did to banks.

    All told, the Fed said that the nation's 19 largest banks could lose as much as $534 billion. The majority of that would come from soured loans and trading losses from a "global financial market shock." The Fed said that the majority of banks would be able to absorb the losses because they have increased their collective capital by more than $300 billion since the start of 2009. "The capital positions of our banks have improved substantially in the past three years," says a senior Fed official.

    The Tier 1 common equity ratio of the nation's largest banks, a key measure of bank health, would fall to an average of 6.3%, from a recent 10.1%. The Fed generally considers anything above 5% to indicate a healthy bank. Ally came out the worst in the Fed's stress test. The Fed said its capital ratio could fall to half of the required amount. Among the nation's six largest banks, Wells Fargo (WFC) came out of the test with the highest ratio of 6%.

    The Fed said the stress test was modeled on an extreme negative scenario and not its actual outlook for the economy. It was the first time the Fed had released a thorough test of the banks' financial health since the early days of the financial crisis.