The Bank Stress Test

The markets don't seem worried. Even the Bank of America, which will need to raise $35 billion dollars, will not be closing its doors.

“The government has already basically guaranteed they're not going to let any of these large bank holding companies go down,” says Diane Swonk, a Meiserow financial economist.

"These places are seriously wounded but it looks like they're not going to take the country down, at least as of today," says Tom Haugh of PTI Securities.

What's going on is Uncle Sam is measuring the vulnerability of the large banks, many of which are technically insolvent.

But some like JP Morgan Chase, American Express and Met Life are considered sound.

And for the average customer, very little if anything will change.

"Where you deposit your checks might change slightly, or which ATM you use might change slightly. But for the most part it's pretty seamless," says Diane Swonk.

But the Bank of America and Citigroup among others will have to get Washington’s permission on how to raise money to withstand higher unemployment or falling home prices.

"On the other side of this we're gonna see a lot of these ‘too big to fail’ institutions eventually broken up and spun off and turned back into what they were in the first place, regular banks," adds Swonk.

In short, there will be more regulation, less speculation and tighter reins on both the banks and their customers.