As you recall, the stress tests – as they have been popularly called – were a stringent, forward-looking assessment of prospective losses and revenues at the 19 largest U.S. regulated financial institutions. We took the unusual, if not unprecedented, step of releasing publicly the methodology and findings of the SCAP, including the capital needs and loss estimates for the 19 institutions.
The decision to make this information public was made in the context of a systemic crisis, in which markets were hungry for information and in which the Treasury stood ready to inject capital into any of the 19 institutions that were found to need it.