Fed cuts Goldman Sachs’ capital buffer requirement to 6.2% from 6.4%

Following its stress test earlier this year, the Federal Reserve Board on Wednesday announced final individual capital requirements for all large banks, effective on October 1. Large bank capital requirements are informed by the Board’s stress test results, which provide a risk-sensitive and forward-looking assessment of capital needs. The table shows each bank’s common equity tier 1 capital requirement, which is made up of several components, including: The minimum capital requirement, which is the same for each bank and is 4.5 percent; The stress capital buffer requirement, which is based in part on the stress test results and is at least 2.5 percent; and if applicable, a capital surcharge for the largest and most complex banks, which is updated in the first quarter of each year to account for the overall systemic risk of each of these banks. If a bank’s capital dips below its total requirement announced today, the bank is subject to automatic restrictions on both capital distributions and discretionary bonus payments. Also today, the Board announced that it had modified the stress capital buffer requirement for Goldman Sachs (GS), after the firm’s request for reconsideration. Based on an analysis of additional information presented by the firm in its request, the Board determined it would be appropriate to adjust the treatment of particular historical expenses incurred by the bank in the stress testing models’ input data, due to the non-recurring nature of those expenses. As a result, the bank’s stress capital buffer requirement has been adjusted to 6.2 percent from a preliminary 6.4 percent. Other publicly traded companies in the space include Bank of America (BAC), Citi (C), JPMorgan (JPM), Morgan Stanley (MS), U.S. Bancorp (USB) and Wells Fargo (WFC).