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US banks in much better shape than years ago, says EY CEO

Michelle Fox
Updated
US banks in much better shape than years ago, says EY CEO

U.S. banks are in much better shape than they were years ago, EY Global Chairman and CEO Mark Weinberger said Wednesday.

"Bottom line is they've got to get back into the business of lending, the business of going ahead and creating capital, and hopefully this will be turning the corner," he said in an interview with CNBC's " Closing Bell " from the Aspen Ideas Festival.

The Federal Reserve released the results of its latest stress test Wednesday , with only three objections out of the 33 institutions tested.

The Fed objected to the capital distribution plans proposed at Deutsche Bank (Grey Market: DBAGF) Trust and the Santander (NYSE: SC) U.S. operation. Regulators are also requiring Morgan Stanley to submit a new capital plan by the end of the fourth quarter of 2016.

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Several banks began boosting stock buybacks and dividends on the news.

Meanwhile, the impact of Brexit on U.K. companies is still being assessed, but one real issue right now is the value of the pound sterling, said Weinberger.

The currency plunged after the U.K. last week voted to leave the European Union and hit a 31-year low of $1.3122 on Monday. The pound has started to move back up over the last two days.

Because of that, there may be more takeovers of U.K. operations by foreign companies, Weinberger said.

While the takeover talk is "pretty speculative" and isn't happening yet, he said there is already interest out there.

"There are sovereign wealth funds, there are some PE [private equity] funds … that are looking over to try and find values as we speak."

However, there are also a lot of unanswered questions about how to structure deals, what the legal requirements are going to be, among other issues, he said.

The Brexit vote brought deals the firm was working on to a halt on Friday, said Weinberger, noting that there were "20-something deals" involving U.K. companies that were "pencils down."

"They're all wondering, should we make these investments. What's the valuations going to be, am I going to be able to get capital," he said.



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