The Fed just tightened regulations on America's largest banks. If you're "too big to fail," you'll have to live up to premium requirements. As Spider-Man's uncle said, "With great power comes great responsibility."

The good news is, the Big 8 banks are mostly doing all right. Tuesday's market reaction probably told you so already as the Dow Jones (^DJI -1.19%) jumped as much as 0.5% in this morning's trading action.

Here's how the eight banks under the "too big to fail" rules fare against some of the new requirements:

Company Name

Market Cap (billions)

Total Risk-Based Capital Ratio

Tier 1 Risk-Based Capital Ratio

Total Common Equity to Total Assets

State Street

$30

19.2%

18%

5.6%

Goldman Sachs Group

$73

17.3%

14.5%

6.9%

Citigroup

$147

16.1%

13.1%

8.5%

Bank of America

$139

15.5%

12.2%

6.7%

Wells Fargo

$219

14.8%

11.8%

8%

The Bank of New York Mellon

$33

14.7%

13.6%

3.5%

Morgan Stanley

$48

14.5%

13.9%

6.4%

JPMorgan Chase

$199

14.1%

11.6%

6.2%

Fed Targets:

  

8%

6%

4.5%

Data collected from S&P Capital IQ on July 2, 2013.

State Street (STT -1.74%) and Goldman Sachs (GS -1.36%) do consistently well on these metrics, ranking first and second in two categories. In layman's terms, this means that these banks carry much lower investment risks than the Fed now requires, since their financial bets are backed by strong balance sheets.

Another positive takeaway from the Total and Tier 1 capital ratios is this: No megabank fails either one of these tests. In terms of the Tier 1 ratio, which measures risk against the bank's most reliable core assets, only one bank falls below double the adjusted target level. This is good news for the big banks, and also for the economy as a whole.

When it comes to common equity as a ratio of total assets, the news becomes a bit gloomier. The Bank of New York Mellon (BK -1.09%) falls below the 4.5% target level with a 3.5% performance, and the other banks also skim a bit closer to the ground. This is where you measure the risk of overstretching your balance sheet, as applied to the company's investors. Citigroup (C -1.47%) runs away with this trophy, and it should come as no surprise that Citi's shares jumped nearly 2% this morning. The bank aced a crucial exam here.

The new rules are actually tighter than the international Basel III agreement on several points, including the Tier 1 capital ratio. So the Fed pulled the banking thumbscrews significantly tighter, but isn't drawing blood at this point. The Dow just earned its 14% year-to-date gains with flying colors.