Fed passes Goldman, JPMorgan capital plans

The Federal Reserve on Monday said it had passed the revised capital plans of JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, eight months after sending them back due to weaknesses. In its March stress tests of the top US banks, the Fed had raised questions about how the two planned to allocate capital, which includes their programs for dividends and share buybacks to reward investors. Both JPMorgan and Goldman received only conditional approvals, and were required to submit new plans by the end of the third quarter "to address weaknesses in their capital planning processes." Those weaknesses, the Fed said in March, "were significant enough to require immediate attention." It not addressed adequately, it had said the weaknesses "would be grounds for objecting to the capital plans and planned capital distributions." In a brief statement Monday, the Fed said it "has not objected" to the re-submitted plans. The central bank has already begun the process of subjecting the top banks to a new round of stress tests, with the results to be released next March.