Fed OKs capital plans at 14 banks

The Federal Reserve said Thursday it has approved capital plans of 14 U.S. financial institutions under financial reform legislation enacted in 2010. The Fed said the Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review -- mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 -- was intended to determine whether the largest bank holding companies' capital levels are strong enough to ensure banking organizations are able to lend to households and businesses "and to continue to meet their financial obligations, even in times of economic difficulty." The review includes an evaluation of capital planning processes and capital adequacy, as well as proposed capital actions such as dividend payments and share buybacks and issuances, the Fed said in a news release. In addition to the 14 institutions whose proposals were approved, two institutions received conditional approval and the Fed objected to the plans of two firms. The Fed said it did not object to capital plans for American Express Co.; Bank of America Corp.; The Bank of New York Mellon Corp.; Capital One Financial Corp.; Citigroup Inc.; Fifth Third Bancorp; KeyCorp; Morgan Stanley; The PNC Financial Services Group Inc.; Regions Financial Corp.; State Street Corp.; SunTrust Banks Inc.; U.S. Bancorp; and Wells Fargo & Co. It did not object to the capital plans for The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JP Morgan Chase & Co. but required the two institutions to submit new capital plans by the end of the third quarter "to address weaknesses in their capital planning processes." The Fed objected to the capital plans of Ally Financial Inc. and BB&T Corp. The Fed said March 7 -- after the third round of so-called stress tests mandated by Dodd-Frank -- the largest 18 U.S. banks have shown improved resilience as they distance themselves from the 2008 financial crisis. The Fed said at the time "the nation's largest bank holding companies have continued to improve their ability to withstand an extremely adverse hypothetical economic scenario and are collectively in a much stronger capital position than before the financial crisis."