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Doubts over U.S. bank capital payouts may cloud strong earnings

Summary:
Good story at Reuters below... there is some meat here for a change...  Tomorrow is a big day as iirc 3 big banks report 1Q.... C, JPM, WFC...  BAC probably next week.The January 1 changes in tax POLICY do not appear well thought out (4%  b hit to banking system capital) and have somewhat curtailed economic activity from Q4 levels and stopped the equity rally cold.Nor was it well coordinated with pending bank reform legislation... SB 2155 now seemingly a bit stalled in the House (idiot Ryan...) should be held in view here also... Quirks in the new U.S. tax code are sowing doubts over how much big banks can boost dividends and stock buybacks this year, threatening to take the shine off what are likely to be strong quarterly profits.  Eight years of U.S. economic growth have been a

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Good story at Reuters below... there is some meat here for a change...  Tomorrow is a big day as iirc 3 big banks report 1Q.... C, JPM, WFC...  BAC probably next week.

The January 1 changes in tax POLICY do not appear well thought out (4%  $40b hit to banking system capital) and have somewhat curtailed economic activity from Q4 levels and stopped the equity rally cold.

Nor was it well coordinated with pending bank reform legislation... SB 2155 now seemingly a bit stalled in the House (idiot Ryan...) should be held in view here also...

Quirks in the new U.S. tax code are sowing doubts over how much big banks can boost dividends and stock buybacks this year, threatening to take the shine off what are likely to be strong quarterly profits. 
Eight years of U.S. economic growth have been a tailwind for banks, but the Fed has since 2013 made its stress test scenarios more challenging each year. The tests are meant to ensure banks have enough capital in sharp downturns to meet regulatory requirements. 
Meanwhile, the new tax law could deliver a one-two punch to capital measured in the stress tests. 
After first writing down deferred tax assets to account for a lower corporate rate, banks now face being prevented from carrying back losses in stress testing to past profitable quarters to benefit from tax rebates. 
Analysts are likely to push executives for details on the complex tax issues and already opaque stress tests. 
Lenders submitted their balance sheets for testing last week.

Mike Norman
Mike Norman is an economist and veteran trader whose career has spanned over 30 years on Wall Street. He is a former member and trader on the CME, NYMEX, COMEX and NYFE and he managed money for one of the largest hedge funds and ran a prop trading desk for Credit Suisse.

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