We are reviewing the adequacy of capital at the holding company level on a constant basis, daily in some cases," SEC Chairman Christopher Cox told reporters on Tuesday after a news conference on greater cooperation with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. "We have a good deal of comfort about the capital cushions that these firms have been on," he said.
You don't seem to realize that a "run on a bank" and the counter-party risk that is associated with that can occur in a period of 24 hours. It can happen that quick. If it didn't happen that quick, then there would be no need to call up the FED at a moment's notice and say we need HELP! It's very possible that BSC was in fact "stable" back on Wednesday when their CFO Alan Schwarz expressed confidence in their $17 BILLION dollar cushion on Bear's balance sheet. When counter-party trades don't get cleared a lot can happen in 48 hours. Believe it.