Late last week, the Treasury began briefing top banks about the results of the so-called stress tests. The early word seems to be that no bank is in imminent danger of collapse and that most have the capital to ride out the current situation. But the concern has always been a worser-case scenario, in which the economy continues to sour, which it well could.

The New York Times suggests that a crop of big regional banks may be the worst positioned. It reports that the likes of Regions Financial of Alabama, SunTrust of Georgia and Fifth Third of Ohio are all facing some huge losses on commercial real estate and corporate loans. They've already been hit hard by the residential mortgage bust. Morgan Stanley analysts have determined that SunTrust, Regions and KeyCorp may be among those that need new capital. 

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