Capital

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2012

Equity [Abstract]

Capital

NOTE 13 – CAPITAL

During the year ended December 31, 2012, the Company submitted its 2012 CCAR capital plans for review by the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve's review indicated that the Company's capital exceeded requirements throughout the Supervisory Stress Test time horizon without any additional capital actions. Additionally, the Federal Reserve did not object to the Company maintaining its quarterly common stock dividend of $0.05 per share and its plans to redeem certain trust preferred securities at such time as their governing documents permit, including when these securities are no longer expected to qualify as Tier 1 capital. Accordingly, during the year ended December 31, 2012, the Company declared a quarterly common stock dividend of $0.05 per share each quarter and redeemed $1.2 billion of outstanding trust preferred securities. As of December 31, 2012, the Company has $627 million in trust preferred securities outstanding. In January 2013, the Company submitted its 2013 CCAR capital plan and expects the Federal Reserve to complete its review of the plan by March 2013.

During the year ended December 31, 2011, the Company initiated and completed certain elements of its January 2011 capital plan, including issuing a $1.0 billion common stock offering and a $1.0 billion senior debt offering, which pays 3.60% interest and is due in 2016. The Company used the proceeds from these offerings, as well as from other available funds to repurchase in March 2011, $3.5 billion of Fixed Rate Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series C, and $1.4 billion of Fixed Rate Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series D, that was issued to the U.S. Treasury under the TARP’s CPP in 2008. As a result of the repurchase of Series C and D Preferred Stock, the Company incurred a one-time non-cash charge to net income/(loss) available to common shareholders of $74 million related to accelerating the outstanding discount accretion on the Series C and D Preferred Stock. The discount associated with the Series C and D Preferred Stock was being amortized over a five-year period from each respective issuance date using the effective yield method and totaled $6 million and $25 million during 2011 and 2010, respectively.

Capital Ratios

The Company is subject to various regulatory capital requirements which involve quantitative measures of the Company’s assets. Capital ratios at December 31, consisted of the following:

	2012				2011
(Dollars in millions)	Amount		Ratio		Amount	Ratio
SunTrust Banks, Inc.
Tier 1 common		$13,509	10.04	%	$12,254	9.22	%
Tier 1 capital	14,975		11.13		14,490	10.90
Total capital	18,131		13.48		18,177	13.67
Tier 1 leverage			8.91			8.75
SunTrust Bank
Tier 1 capital		$15,121	11.38	%	$14,026	10.70	%
Total capital	18,056		13.59		17,209	13.13
Tier 1 leverage			9.23			8.69

Substantially all of the Company’s retained earnings are undistributed earnings of the Bank, which are restricted by various regulations administered by federal and state bank regulatory authorities. At December 31, 2012, retained earnings of the Bank available for payment of cash dividends to the Parent Company under these regulations totaled approximately $1.8 billion. There was no capacity for payment of cash dividends to the Parent Company under these regulations at December 31, 2011. Additionally, the Federal Reserve requires the Company to maintain cash reserves. As of December 31, 2012 and 2011, these reserve requirements totaled $1.9 billion and $1.7 billion, respectively and were fulfilled with a combination of cash on hand and deposits at the Federal Reserve.

Preferred Stock

Preferred stock at December 31, consisted of the following:

(Dollars in millions)	2012		2011
Series A (1,725 shares outstanding)		$172		$172
Series B(1,025 shares outstanding)	103		103
Series E (4,500 shares outstanding)	450		—
		$725		$275

In September 2006, the Company authorized and issued depositary shares representing ownership interests in 5,000 shares of Perpetual Preferred Stock, Series A, no par value and $100,000 liquidation preference per share (the Series A Preferred Stock). The Series A Preferred Stock has no stated maturity and will not be subject to any sinking fund or other obligation of the Company. Dividends on the Series A Preferred Stock, if declared, will accrue and be payable quarterly at a rate per annum equal to the greater of three-month LIBOR plus 0.53%, or 4.00%. Dividends on the shares are noncumulative. Shares of the Series A Preferred Stock have priority over the Company’s common stock with regard to the payment of dividends and, as such, the Company may not pay dividends on or repurchase, redeem, or otherwise acquire for consideration shares of its common stock unless dividends for the Series A Preferred Stock have been declared for that period and sufficient funds have been set aside to make payment. During 2009, the Company repurchased 3,275 shares of the Series A Preferred Stock. In September 2011, the Series A Preferred Stock became redeemable at the Company’s option at a redemption price equal to $100,000 per share, plus any declared and unpaid dividends. Except in certain limited circumstances, the Series A Preferred Stock does not have any voting rights.

In December 2011, the Company authorized 5,010 shares and issued 1,025 shares of Perpetual Preferred Stock, Series B, no par value and $100,000 liquidation preference per share (the Series B Preferred Stock). The Series B Preferred Stock has no stated maturity and will not be subject to any sinking fund or other obligation of the Company. Dividends on the shares are noncumulative and, if declared, will accrue and be payable quarterly at a rate per annum equal to the greater of three-month LIBOR plus 0.65%, or 4.00%. Shares of the Series B Preferred Stock have priority over the Company's common stock with regard to the payment of dividends and, as such, the Company may not pay dividends on or repurchase, redeem, or otherwise acquire for consideration shares of its common stock unless dividends for the Series B Preferred Stock have been declared for that period, and sufficient funds have been set aside to make payment. The Series B Preferred Stock was immediately redeemable upon issuance at the Company's option at a redemption price equal to $100,000 per share, plus any declared and unpaid dividends. Except in certain limited circumstances, the Series B Preferred Stock does not have any voting rights.

In December 2012, the Company authorized 5,000 shares and issued 4,500 shares of Perpetual Preferred Stock, Series E, no par value and $100,000 liquidation preference per share (the Series E Preferred Stock). The Series E Preferred Stock has no stated maturity and will not be subject to any sinking fund or other obligation of the Company to redeem, repurchase or retire the shares. Dividends on the shares are noncumulative and, if declared, will accrue and be payable quarterly at a rate per annum of 5.875%. Shares of the Series E Preferred Stock have priority over the Company's common stock with regard to the payment of dividends and rank equally with the Company's outstanding Perpetual Preferred Stock, Series A and Series B and, as such, the Company may not pay dividends on or repurchase, redeem, or otherwise acquire for consideration shares of its common stock unless dividends for the Series E Preferred Stock have been declared for that period, and sufficient funds have been set aside to make payment. The Series E Preferred Stock is redeemable, at the option of the Company, on any dividend payment date occurring on or after March 15, 2018, at a redemption price equal to $100,000 per share, plus any declared and unpaid dividends, without regard to any undeclared dividends. Except in certain limited circumstances, the Series E Preferred Stock does not have any voting rights.

The Company repurchased its Series C and D Cumulative Perpetual Preferred Stock from the U.S. Treasury in March 2011. In September 2011, the U.S. Treasury sold, in a public auction, a total of 17.9 million of the Company's warrants to purchase 11.9 million shares of SunTrust common stock at an exercise price of $44.15 per share (Series B warrants) and 6 million shares of SunTrust common stock at an exercise price of $33.70 per share (Series A warrants). The warrants were issued by SunTrust to the U.S. Treasury in connection with its investment in SunTrust Banks, Inc. under the CPP and have expiration dates of November 2018 (Series B) and December 2018 (Series A). In conjunction with the U.S. Treasury's auction, the Company acquired 4 million of the Series A warrants for $11 million and retired them.

Common and Preferred Dividends

The Company remains subject to certain restrictions on its ability to increase the dividend on common shares as a result of participating in the U.S. Treasury’s CPP. If the Company increases its dividend above $0.54 per share per quarter prior to the tenth anniversary of its participation in the CPP, then the anti-dilution provision within the warrants issued in connection with the Company’s participation in the CPP will require the exercise price and number of shares to be issued upon exercise to be proportionately adjusted. The amount of such adjustment is determined by a formula and depends in part on the extent to which the Company raises its dividend. The formulas are contained in the warrant agreements which were filed as exhibits to Form 8-K as filed on September 23, 2011.

During the years ended December 31, 2012, 2011, and 2010, SunTrust paid cash dividends on perpetual preferred stock totaling $12 million, $67 million, and $239 million, respectively. In 2012, the dividend per share for Series A and Series B perpetual preferred stock was $4,067 and $4,027, respectively. SunTrust also declared and paid common dividends totaling $107 million, or $0.20 per common share, $64 million, or $0.12 per common share, and $20 million, or $0.04 per common share, during the years ended December 31, 2012, 2011, and 2010, respectively.