stress tests

I am reading the US Federal Reserve's bank latest bank stress test analysis because a colleague sent me an alarming note about it. And so I wanted to run my thoughts by you. I like the fact that the Fed is thinking in probabilistic terms…

Europe has been postponing the recapitalisation of its banking sector. This column argues that it has been doing so for far too long. Without such a recapitalisation, the danger is that economic stagnation will continue for a long period,…

Nationalised Dutch lender SNS Reaal, the fourth largest bank in the Netherlands has recently been nationalised despite a reported 13 percent Tier 1 capital level in the most recent round of banking stress tests in Europe. Clearly, the…

I love Chris Whalen's bank industry analysis. I featured his CNBC commentary yesterday. Today is his commentary from last night's Capital Account.

Chris Whalen is a highly regarded banking analyst who has been quite critical of the goings on with banks and their regulators. However, he is very even-handed in his assessment of the Fed's latest stress tests of the largest 19 banks.

A chart with a country by country breakdown of the over 100 billion euros of additional capital needed by euro zone banks

I don’t follow the Spanish banking sector well enough to know what hidden value Banco Pastor has but I find it curious that it is the subject of a takeover bid at a 31% premium by Spain’s fifth largest bank, Banco Popular.

This is going to be a relatively long post. But I think it’s important. I have been meaning to update my thinking about the “Fake Recovery” which I heralded in early 2009 as the economy in the US began to turn. My view is that without…

8 banks out 90 banks fail: Five in Spain, two from Greece and one from Austria (Spain's CAM, CatalunyaCaixa, Banco Pastor, Unnim & Grupo Caja; Austria's Volksbanken; Greece's Eurobank & ATEBank). One additional bank, Helaba, the…

I was on CNBC's Power Lunch yesterday talking about European debt markets in the wake of the Irish stress tests. I certainly think the Irish stress tests were a significant event. But the Euro Crisis is really all about Spain.