Banking could be at historic turning point with successful stress tests

In early May of 2009, with the U.S. economy still losing hundreds of thousands of jobs a month, federal regulators announced the results of “stress tests” they had conducted on the country’s beleaguered big banks. After simulating what would happen to banks in the case of another financial crisis, government officials revealed that the institutions were close to healthy.

“With the clarity that today’s announcement will bring, we hope banks are going to get back to the business of banking,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said then, trying to close the book on the banking crisis.