Banks Survived Another Week—and the Biggest Ones Look Like Winners

The U.S. banking system looks to have skirted a full-blown crisis in the past two weeks after the worst scare since 2008-09, thanks to regulators’ moves to effectively back deposits and provide loans to the nation’s banks.

Questions remain about the health of some regional banks, even after 11 large banks rescued San Francisco–based First Republic Bank (ticker: FRC) on Thursday with a deposit infusion encouraged by the government. But America’s biggest banks, including JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Wells Fargo (WFC), look safe and seem like good investment bets, even though tighter regulation, higher capital levels, and greater liquidity requirements are likely to trim industry returns.