When shall we learn if U.S. banks are viable or not?

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Citigroup Inc. and other banks were instructed by the Federal Reserve to keep silence on the results of their stress tests, which were conducted to measure their further viability against the recession. Separately the U.S. Treasury Department also asked banks not to include the regulatory stress tests into their first-quarter earnings results.

Some of the top U.S. banks have already completed their own internal stress tests but they still do not know the results of the governmental examinations, according to the sources familiar with the situation.

Today Barack Obama is meeting with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp Chairman Sheila Bair as well as top White House economic adviser Larry Summers, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro, and U.S. Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan, to discuss the results of the stress tests. According to the official schedule the results will likely be made public by the end of April.

On the meeting the regulators are expected to present brief report on the progress of the examination and discuss next steps to be undertaken pertaining to the results. Meantime markets are very agitated anticipating the reports which will show the health of the U.S. largest financial institutions and clarify which of them need more taxpayer money.

Once the examination is complete with the financing needs determined banks will be given six months to raise their capital in the private market or through the governmental infusion.

The question about how the results should be issued by the government remains open and according to some sources it is up to the Treasury to endorse the final decision.