The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. finalized a rule Tuesday requiring the largest financial institutions to draft “living wills” to serve as blueprints in case of failure.

The resolution plans will detail how the FDIC as receiver would wind down the institution that ensures depositors can access accounts within one business day and minimizes losses to the bank’s creditors.

Banks with at least $250 billion in assets must submit initial plans by July 1. Those with $100 billion assets or more must file plans by July 1, 2013. Remaining banks with at least $50 billion in assets must turn in plans by the end of 2013, according to the final rule.

The FDIC said 37 institutions will be subject to the rule, holding roughly $4.14 trillion in insured deposits as of the end of September.

“The rule seeks to address a key lesson learned from the recent financial crisis, which is that resolution plans for large and complex insured depository institutions are essential for their orderly and least-costly resolution,” the FDIC said in a statement Tuesday.

Regulators realized too late in 2008 that they needed resolution plans for the largest Wall Street institutions on the brink of failure and instead built programs to bail them out. In 2009, the G20 leaders called on the Financial Stability Board to beginning drawing measures addressing concerns with these “too big to fail” firms.

The FSB built on work undertaken by the international Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, which had been co-chaired by the FDIC but failed to produce any plans. The FDIC drew up the latest finalized rule under directive of the Dodd-Frank Act.

Write to Jon Prior.

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