Goldman Sachs ‘the big winner’ of 2025 stress test, says Citi

The results of the Federal Reserve Board’s annual bank stress test, released on Friday after the close, were “very positive,” says Citi analyst Keith Horowitz, who estimates Stress Capital Buffers should decline about 70 basis points on average. While the firm has viewed Goldman Sachs (GS) as best positioned to benefit from deregulation, the magnitude of the SCB improvement of about 300 basis points was “much larger than expected” as it appears Goldman has been able to effectively argue its business model has a countercyclical component, making it the “big winner,” the analyst tells investors. Following Goldman as the biggest winners were Wells Fargo (WFC) and M&T Bank (MTB) with SCB improvements estimated at 130 and 110 basis points, respectively, adds the analyst.