Results showed that 10 of the bank holding companies need to raise an additional $74.6 billion in new capital. Of the 10, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) needs to raise the largest amount: $33.9 billion. Wells Fargo (NYSE: WF) comes in second place. Other banks include KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY), Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C), Fifth Third Bancorp (NYSE: FITB), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), GMAC LLC (NYSE: GJM), PNC Financial Services Group Inc. (NYSE: PNC), SunTrust Banks Inc. (NYSE: STI), and Regions Financial Corp (NYSE: RF).

These banks will have 6 months to fill their capital shortfalls but they are to submit their plans to federal regulators by June to show how they will fabricate the capital needed.

Some suggestions are:

1) selling stocks - Wells Fargo plans to sell common stocks to bolster their capital base
2) selling business units- Fifth Third Bancorp sold 51% of its processing business, which handled credit card, debit and other transactions, to Advent International. This deal increased FITB’s capital levels by $1.2 billion.
3) selling securities – Each of the banks can sell government issued-bonds and other various types of securities to generate capital.
4) TARP- The Troubled Asset Relief Program still has $110 billion in cash available for investment.

Fortunately for the 9 other banks, they do not need to raise additional capital. These banks include: US Bancorp (NYSE: USB), Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (NYSE: BK), Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS), Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF,) JP Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), BB&T Corp. (NYSE: BBT), State Street Corp. (NYSE: STT), and MetLife Inc. (NYSE: MET).

With that said, if you are still not quite sure about what the stress test entails and its purpose, please feel free to read “Stressing Out” published on May 3 on this following website. It might be able to provide you pieces and probable answers to any questions that you might have.