Headline tier-one capital ratios show all three banks at 11-12% (with BoA including Merrill Lynch).
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First, regulators are pressuring them to make their balance-sheets safer, by improving their capital ratios.
Capital ratios are at an all-time high since the 1940s and lending is still down.
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Since its capital ratios are too low to support fast growth, SBI needs to raise more equity.
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But at the same time, under pressure from regulators, they are trying to boost their capital ratios.
The inspectors identified serious organisational weaknesses and found that the bank had failed to maintain its capital ratios.
Since the banks fall under regulatory capital ratios for insurers, there is more danger of weak overall capital.
Canadian banks have also weathered the financial crisis relatively unscathed, due in part to their high capital ratios.
While other big banks have been worrying about their capital ratios, HSBC has been busy expanding in emerging markets.
If banks' capital ratios fall below 7%, regulators may place restrictions on their ability to pay dividends and bonuses.
Banks are already facing demands for higher capital ratios (and thus safer balance-sheets).
Deutsche Bank, which has relatively low capital ratios (something that should flatter ROE), managed 13% on an underlying pre-tax basis.
Gorman may be thinking about saving the cash in order to meet capital ratios set by the upcoming Basel II standards.
Keep in mind that brokerage houses are just as leveraged as was Long-Term Capital Management, at about 25-to-1 debt-to- capital ratios.
These institutions will probably have to maintain capital ratios about 0.5 percentage point higher than other banks, the Nikkei report said.
Instead of lending more, banks would rather boost their capital ratios to hasten the day when governments get off their backs.
Bank-capital ratios now exceed pre-crisis levels and most of their TARP money has been repaid at a profit to the government.
Instead banks will probably face a sliding scale, with minimum capital ratios rising as they get bigger or embrace more risk.
Together they need two-thirds of this amount to write off these loans and put their capital ratios on a sound footing.
Basel III makes explicit provision for capital ratios to be varied on a discretionary basis for so-called macro-prudential purposes, to deflate bubbles.
Citi said it was not planning to cut its dividend, as some analysts suggested last week, to shore up its sagging capital ratios.
Or to put it another way, ordering all banks to increase their capital ratios could be seen as unfair to Barclays and HSBC.
Cutting the amount of assets to be supported by a given amount of equity can also help a bank improve its capital ratios.
Bigger banks offering to take over the better assets of failed banks could then be given new money to boost their capital ratios.
Let's just say that in an ideal world, it wanted all the banks to increase their capital ratios beyond levels agreed with Mr Bailey.
Though their overall leverage ratios are high, their risk-adjusted capital ratios under the Basel 2 rules are stronger than those of most commercial banks.
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In a stressed scenario, Morgan Stanley ( MS) and Goldman Sachs ( GS) would have capital ratios below 6.0%, but above the minimum 5.0% threshold.
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If the changes go into effect, banks' tier-one capital ratios could fatten fast, allowing them to lend more without raising more money in a hostile market.
Gradually, the strictures on capital ratios laid down in Basel III will force the broadening of that capital base, at the expense of potential remuneration pools.
More troubling are the banks that are forced by regulators to increase capital ratios by shrinking their balance sheet or in other words, stop making loans.
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