Tier 1 to Total Capital Recon and Ratio reporting

Ok, this has been a crazy week. One of the quarterly disclosures I've been doing for the past three quarters has been the tie out and reconciliation of Tier 1 Capital, Total Capital, and Capital Ratios to the financial statments filed with the SEC. The 10Q tie out is complex, but to do a thorough review, we look at some specific controls and processes to gain confidence in the compilation of financial information for reporting.

So this week, I have looked at the capital for the entire corporation and the related ratios. There is additional scrutiny right now on the bank's capital position since the regulators are really looking at this carefully for all US banks given the current credit crunch and related losses in mortgage loans. Loan loss reserves have increased substantially, and this drives a decrease in available capital. WaMu and Wachovia have recently been raising additional capital, and Citigroup had to raise significant capital (mostly from that Arab group) to stay afloat.

So no pressure there on my tie out of the financials supporting the Tier 1 and Total Capital calculations, the tie out of risk weighted assets and average assets, and the ratio calculations. My deadline for my disclosure work was yesterday and I worked until after 6 to get that one done, my other disclosures done (with pesky international tax problems), nevermind the other audit work I needed to complete.

While I had wonderful intentions of going home and getting rid of my stress through exercise (for the mental wind down the physical exercise would provide), I opted instead for a 20 minute soak in the hot tub after eating some delicious sugar wafer cookies. I know you are all shocked that the hot tub would solve this problem! 105 degrees with massaging jets is an amazing thing after a long day when it was a nice cool 50 degrees outside at 9 pm. It was mighty satisfactual!!