Tag Archives: Stress Tests

The central bank announced three "severely adverse" economic situations to test the nation's largest banks.

“In this scenario, economic factors in the United States reflect a contracting economy marked with rising unemployment, widening credit spreads, low treasury yields, declining asset prices and near-term inflationary pressures brought about by a considerable rise in the price of oil,” the Association reported.

Another key effort is the Fed's launch of the Comprehensive Liquidity Assessment and Review (CLAR) in 2012 as an annual assessment to give supervisors of financial firms a regular opportunity to respond to evolving liquidity risks. The Fed also enhanced the rules creating enhanced risk management standards for larger U.S. banks in addition to the rules in place for capital planning, liquidity risk management, and stress testing.

Worst-case scenario: In the event of repeat of the 2008 economic downturn, the federal government’s main mortgage buyers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may need another $190 billion bailout to keep them solvent. So say the results of the inaugural Dodd-Frank Act Stress Test, released by the Federal Housing Finance Agency Wednesday.