Preface
The Federal Reserve, through its supervision and regulation of banking organizations, promotes a safe, sound, and efficient banking and financial system. This oversight supports the U.S. economy by ensuring that banking organizations remain healthy and can serve as a source of strength.
Annual assessment of the capital adequacy and capital planning practices of the largest and most complex banking organizations is a key component of that oversight. Doing so allows the Federal Reserve to determine whether bank holding companies (BHCs) and U.S. intermediate holding companies of foreign banking organizations (IHCs) have sufficient capital to continue operating and lending to households and businesses, even during times of economic and financial market stress.
This annual assessment consists of two primary components:
- The Dodd-Frank Act stress test (DFAST) is a forward-looking quantitative evaluation of bank capital that demonstrates how a hypothetical set of stressful economic conditions developed by the Federal Reserve would affect the capital ratios of large firms.1
- The Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR) exercise includes a quantitative assessment for all subject firms and a qualitative assessment of the capital planning practices of the largest and most complex firms' capital planning practices. The CCAR quantitative assessment uses the same results as DFAST and incorporates firms' planned capital actions, such as dividend payments and common stock repurchases. In the qualitative assessment, the Federal Reserve evaluates how the largest and most complex firms identify, measure, and determine capital needs for their material risks. At the conclusion of the process, the Federal Reserve can object to all subject firms' capital plans on quantitative grounds and certain firms' capital plans on qualitative grounds.
References
1. Pub. L. No. 111-203, 124 Stat. 1376 (2010); 12 CFR part 252, subpart E. Return to text