These are the times of despair and stress on the domestic as well as the international front. The political imbroglio enveloping the nation has sent Nepal into a rollercoaster ride as the numerous political parties seek a common ground to find an appropriate leader to rule the nation. Protests and strikes- a phenomenon always dictating the trials and tribulations of the common people, have resumed, sending the denizens into a cloud of worries to identify the path into which the nation will lead itself into. We hope that the political situation in the nation will follow a desired path of progress and development in the forthcoming days.

Far away from the madding crowd, Federal Reserve, the central bank of the largest economy in the world, plans to disclose on Thursday the results of its review of bank plans for their piles of cash. The results will be the second half of what is now considered to be the annual affair of disclosing the stress tests for the nations’ 18 largest banks. Last week, the Fed furnished details of the results of its stress tests. The result stated that 17 banks passed, which meant the Fed believes that they would be able to overcome a nasty recession or in the words of the Fed, “seriously adverse scenario”.

Citigroup and Bank of America, arguably the two largest banks in the US, have the most riding on the announcement. Both banks have paid a nominal quarterly dividend of 1 cent per share. Both came out undeterred in last weeks’ stress test, although this was partly an effect of their dividends being set so low last year. Wells Fargo, which had approved last year to pay a quarterly dividend of 22 cents, also showed capital significantly in excess of the 5 percent the Fed deemed the minimum to pass these tests. JP Morgan Chase paid a quarterly dividend of 30 cents per share. However, it probably can afford a slight increase in its dividend program but it seems unlikely that it would be able to buyback more shares than it planned last year. Goldman Sachs, the focal point of the recession years not so long ago, was approved for a quarterly dividend of 50 cents per share last year. In the stress test, it fared poorly, leaving little room for higher capital distributions. Morgan Stanley is arguably in the same boat. It currently paid a quarterly dividend of 5 cents per share. The Fed saw its capital position plummeting in the “seriously adverse scenario”, which was considered to be one of the steepest declines of all the banks tested.

Analysts have spelt a word of caution for the numerous people looking forward to the results. Although the results are expected to be released at 4:30 pm ET, it’s possible that they will be released much earlier. We hope that the situation on the domestic as well as the international front will exude the ‘storm before the calm’ and not the other way round.