U.S. banking regulators are looking to ease the demands on big banks to create “living wills,” which set out plans for winding up a failing bank without triggering a systemic crisis.
The U.S. Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) are proposing revisions to resolution plan requirements designed to maintain their existing expectations for the largest, most systemically important firms, but reduce the requirements for smaller banks that represent less systemic risk.
The biggest banks would still be required to submit resolution plans to the regulators every two years, whereas smaller firms (including Royal Bank and TD Bank) would only submit plans every three years. Additionally, these submissions would alternate between full plans and less extensive, “targeted” plans.
The proposals would also reduce the requirements on foreign banks with smaller, less complex U.S. operations (including Bank of Montreal, CIBC and Scotiabank), and eliminate resolution planning requirements entirely for certain U.S. banks.
“Since the resolution planning requirements took effect in 2012, large firms have improved their resolution strategies and governance, refined their estimates of liquidity and capital needs in resolution, and simplified their legal structures. These changes have made the firms substantially more resilient,” the Fed noted.
The proposed changes are out for comment until June 21.