The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Federal Reserve explained Friday the process they will use when receiving and evaluating the living wills of major banks.
The concept of living wills is new for banks, but a key part of the post-crisis regulatory regime that aims to ensure large banks have plans in place to unwind their businesses in times of distress.
The Dodd-Frank Reform Act forces bank holding companies with total consolidated assets of $50 billion or more and nonbank financial firms designated for Fed oversight by the Financial Stability Oversight Council to file resolution plans each year to the FDIC and Federal Reserve.
The plans spell out how the banks will handle a rapid and organized resolution of their business under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in a time of severe financial distress.
The first group of living wills is due July 2. Those submissions will come from Bank of America (BAC), Barclays [BCS”>, Citibank [C”>, Credit Suisse [CS”>, Deutsche Bank (DB), Goldman Sachs (GS), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Morgan Stanley (MS) and UBS (UBS).
Firms required to file with this first group are those with $250 billion or more in total nonbank assets. It also includes foreign-based bank holding companies with the same asset levels.
The plans filed must contain a public section and a confidential portion. The public section, which will have information to help the public understand the overall business, will be released publicly on July 3, 2012.
Information in the public portion will describe the company’s core business lines, assets, liabilities as well as its capital and major funding sources.
The FDIC and Fed will conduct a preliminary review of all the plans within 60 days, reviewing each for compliance.
