The Federal Reserve announced last week that it was suspending stock repurchases and limiting the amount of dividends the largest banks can pay in the second quarter. The Fed made this decision after the large banks “passed” the...

CEOs take note: Bank examiners will be looking at how well your management team has assessed risks from the COVID-19 environment, whether and how you have changed your business practices, and if you have addressed these changes...

The last several months of the COVID-19 crisis have heaped an enormous and unexpected level of stress and complexity onto bank CEOs. Managing potentially serious credit problems with clients in various industries, learning to...

As we told you last month, two out of every three community banks chose not to opt into the Community Bank Leverage Ratio. We've updated our numbers as more banks file their Call Reports, but the trend continues. The latest...

The coronavirus has presented the first threat to community banks since the 2008 financial crisis. For the first time, stress testing is a real exercise. What community banks across the country are discovering with dread right...

Thanks, but no thanks: That’s the resounding message from community banks about the new community bank leverage ratio framework. Two out of every three banks chose not to opt into the new framework, according to an exclusive...

After the 2008 Great Recession and prior to the coronavirus pandemic, regulators turned to stress testing to establish bank capital adequacy levels. The Federal Reserve established a program called the Comprehensive Capital...

The one thing we know about the future economic impact of COVID-19 is that we do not know what it will be. The internal optimist in all of us hopes that the lockdowns start to unwind, the economy quickly returns to business as...

During our recent COVID-19 stress testing webinar, I discussed how one of the primary goals of stress testing is to rank your loans based on their capital at risk as measured by the stress test. Community banks can then use these...