By Pete Schroeder
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve said on Thursday that it was giving Deutsche Bank AG (DE:DBKGn) and four other financial institutions an additional year to submit "living wills" detailing how they could be safely dissolved in a crisis.
The Fed, along with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, said Deutsche, Barclays PLC (L:BARC), Credit Suisse Group AG (S:CSGN) and UBS AG (S:UBSG) would now be required to submit those resolution plans by July 1, 2020. The banks previously were expected to submit plans by July 1, 2019.
Additionally, the regulators said Prudential Financial Inc (N:PRU) would face a new submission deadline of Dec. 31, 2019. Prudential's latest plan submission had been due at the end of 2018.
The regulators said the extension would allow them to provide additional feedback to banks and give them more time to prepare the new plans.
The resolution plans, commonly known as living wills, require large banks to detail how they could be unwound in cases of bankruptcy without disrupting the broader financial system. If regulators do not find a plan credible, they could impose restrictions on a bank's activities or even order it to divest.
Typically, banks with over $50 billion in assets have been required to submit plans annually, although regulators have frequently granted extensions in the past. Banks have pushed to move away from the annual schedule, saying the lengthy submissions are onerous.
The Treasury Department recommended regulators extend the evaluation cycle to two years in a June report, while encouraging regulators to limit the submissions to larger banks and providing more transparent feedback.
The delay comes after Deutsche Bank's U.S. subsidiary failed a Fed "stress test" in June.