FDIC’s 20% Shorter ‘Merit’ Reviews Preceded Banking Failures – By James Sterngold – At least three U.S. banks failed in the past year after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. deemed them healthy enough to qualify for a program that reduced the time examiners spent on reviews by at least 20 percent.  … More than 40 percent of all bank examinations conducted by the FDIC between 2004 and 2007 were shorter Merit reviews, according to Greg Hernandez, a spokesman for the agency. … – Bloomberg

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Gov’t confusion in message to banks – Lend more, but don’t increase your leverage - … Lend more, but be prepared for higher capital requirements. Take more risk, but don’t increase your leverage. Extend more credit, but no “excessive lending”. Which is it? … – Sober Look Blog

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Fed: 9 of 10 large banks met capital goals - By David Lawder – … The Fed said that together, the 10 institutions determined by regulator stress tests to need bigger cushions against losses had boosted their Tier 1 common equity by $77 billion — exceeding the $74.6 billion they were told to raise. … – Reuters

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Preliminary Q3 2009 Bank Stress Test Results; Looking for OTC Derivatives Reform – Christopher Whalen – … In fact, the far worse result for our Stress Index survey vs. Q2 suggests that levels of stress in FDIC insured banks are continuing to build, from multiple factors, even as the subsidies that make the large banks look less risky are being withdrawn … – The Institutional Risk Analyst 

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A Simple Solution For Too Big To Fail Banks - Tom Lindmark – But Then What

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S&P says contingent capital won’t do much to repair bank balance sheets – … “We see contingent capital securities as introducing another potential tool to manage the capital base in times of stress. However, they are not being designed by banks to address the need to repair existing weak balance sheets,”  S&Ps notes in Contingent Capital Is Not A Panacea For Banks.” … – Research Recap 
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Bank Credit Standards: The Tightening Is Over – Bill Conerly – Banks have pretty much stopped tightening credit standards, but that doesn’t mean they are easing–maybe not, at least.  The chart below is based on the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Senior Loan Officers. – more – Businomics Blog