Economics
Biggest U.S. Banks Aren’t as Strong as They Appear, Group Says
- Firms closer to regulatory minimums without relief: report
- Americans for Financial Reform says accounting helped banks
This article is for subscribers only.
The largest U.S. banks are less healthy than they appear, boosted by temporary accounting and capital-relief measures as well as massive market support from the Federal Reserve, an advocacy group said.
Although the six biggest banks’ leverage ratios reported at the end of June averaged almost 2 percentage points above the regulatory minimums, the actual average would have been only 0.84 percentage points above without the relief measures, Americans for Financial Reform said in a report Monday.