In the U.S. the Fed has introduced stress tests for big banks since the financial crisis. This was launched in order to make banks more prepared to potential crises and to control their planning and resilience in case of recession. Banks must pass these tests in order to increase dividends or buy shares back. Bank of America, the second largest bank in the country, a few times almost failed these stress tests, having received only conditional approval. This leads to difficulties with investors and also some problems inside the management team. For example some major financial players who represented the Board now seem to be out of game. Bruce Thompson, David Darnell and Brian Moynihan are leaving their posts without even hinting at their potential successors. Moreover, now they are evidently not in good terms though they seemed to be a team before.
Despite all challenges Bank of America has recently posted a revenue gain which followed five years of declines. The total gain over the past five years is 32%. It looks promising but still is much less than some other banks’ performance. Maybe new team will deal with regulators better though the old one seems to catch up while they are in power.
