Fed Test Slaps Wall Street Titans, Unleashes Record Payout
- More than 20 banks announce higher dividends after stress test
- Goldman, Morgan Stanley freeze total payouts at earlier levels
This article is for subscribers only.
Tougher Federal Reserve stress tests forced some of Wall Street’s top banks to rein in ambitious plans for pumping out cash to shareholders. But even those diminished returns spell a record payout to investors.
As the central bank’s annual stress tests ended Thursday, the nation’s four largest lenders -- JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co. and Citigroup Inc. -- said they will distribute more than $110 billion through dividends and stock buybacks, sending their stocks higher. Even shares of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley -- which the Fed blocked from boosting total payouts -- climbed in early trading Friday.