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Updated:
May 13, 2009
Improving markets helped banks pass stress test
Mark Felsenthal, Reuters
May 9, 2009
Excerpt:
U.S. bank regulators breathed a huge sigh of relief in early April when improving financial markets looked set to push the nation's 19 largest banks through the gauntlet of tough "stress tests" in reasonably good shape.
In early March, a month after Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner announced the tests on February 10 to help restore investor confidence in the major banks, the scene was much bleaker: major stock indexes had slumped to 12-year lows on persistent fears about the financial weakness. It looked possible that a major bank might need an emergency government rescue even before the stress test results could be announced.
