This is turning into something of a joke.  The whole point of the ‘stress tests’ was to objectively assess the capital requirements of the Banks’.  Surely no-one could have imagined any outcome other than a requirement to raise more capital.  The only debate might be amount and over what period.

In any event there can be no reason to delay the production of the results.  The market is living in the false belief that the government will not hold the banks feet to the fire, at least judging by the stock market.  If we do not get this over with, and get the facts out, the Governments’ hands will be tied even more to full nationalisation as the only way to avoid another market crash.

Bank objections delay stress tests

Citi, one of the biggest victims of the crisis that has already been bailed out three times by the government, is believed to have been told by regulators that it needs more than $5bn in fresh capital, while BofA might need to convert $45bn in government preferred shares into common equity.