America's Biggest Banks Passed Their Stress Tests. Now They're Showering Investors With Cash.
With the Fed's annual exam behind them, one of these banks is handing shareholders far more cash than the rest.
Overview
The Federal Reserve gave the country's largest banks a passing grade on its annual stress test last week, and they wasted little time turning it into cash for shareholders. The results, released June 24, showed all 32 of the lenders the central bank examined staying above their minimum capital requirements -- even in a hypothetical recession severe enough to saddle the group with more than $708 billion in loan losses. Within hours, the biggest names began rolling out dividend increases and share buybacks.
The question for investors is which bank delivered the most, and whether the wave of payouts points to genuine strength across the group. Answering it means looking past the size of each payout to the stress capital buffer (SCB) behind it -- the extra cushion of capital the Fed makes each bank hold on top of the minimum, determined in part based on stress-test results and set at no less than 2.5%.
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Originally published at www.fool.com.