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                                                                                    Working Paper
                                                                                
                                            Bank Stress Test Results and Their Impact on Consumer Credit Markets
                                        
                                        
                                        
                                        
                                                                                    
                                                                                                    Using Federal Reserve (Fed) confidential stress test data, we exploit the gap between the Fed and bank capital projections as an exogenous shock to banks and analyze how this shock is transmitted to consumer credit markets. First, we document that banks in the 90th percentile of the capital gap reduce their new supply of risky credit by 13 percent compared with those in the 10th percentile and cut their overall credit card risk exposure on an annual basis. Next, we show that these banks find alternative ways to remain competitive and attract customers by lowering interest rates and offering ...