Stress Test Preview: Banks Holding Up

Government stress tests on the 19 largest U.S. banks and thrifts are expected to be completed this month and the most recent data available for the holding companies likely being scrutinized shows that most appear in decent shape.

The list of companies undergoing "consistent, realistic, and forward looking" assessments, as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in February, has not been made public. It was not clear whether holding companies like MetLife (MET), whose primary business is life insurance, would be included in the mix. Therefore, TheStreet.com published a stress test preview in March looking all 31 U.S. holding companies that filed consolidated financial statements with the Federal Reserve and had total assets of over $50 billion.

ProPublica.org later compiled a list of 19 holding companies that the organization determined to meet the Treasury's criteria for the stress tests.

The following table includes earnings, capital adequacy and asset quality data for these 19 companies provided by SNL Financial. The data is as of Dec. 31, and earnings and loan charge-off figures are for all of 2008. Some capital and loan quality ratios are not included for companies such as American Express (AXP), Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS) since the companies weren't required to file bank holding company data for Dec. 31.

Banking Companies Subject to Stress Tests - Dec. 31, 2008 ($Bil) ProPublica, SNL Financial

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) is one of two holding companies on the list to have reported earnings for the first quarter of 2009. The company announced first-quarter net income of $2.1 billion, or 40 cents per common share, beating the Thomson Reuters consensus earnings estimate of 32 cents per share.