Bank of America to hold talks with Fed on stress test results

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Bank of America Corp (NYSE:) on Monday said it had begun a dialogue with the Federal Reserve to understand differing results of the central bank’s stress test and the company’s own under the Dodd-Frank Act.

The results of the Fed’s latest annual stress test released last week showed lenders including Bank of America have enough capital to weather a severe economic slump, paving the way for them to issue share buybacks and dividends.

The bank said in a statement however that it wants to understand the differences in a category called “other comprehensive income” during a nine-quarter period measured in the tests.

Bank of America, the second-biggest U.S. bank, has not made any announcements about its dividend or share repurchase programs since the stress test results were published.

Rivals including JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:), Wells Fargo (NYSE:), Goldman Sachs (NYSE:) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:) hiked their third-quarter dividends on Friday after sailing through the health check.

Last year Bank of America raised its dividend to 22 cents, the highest level since 2008, from 21 cents in 2021.