Since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, global banking regulators have been searching for a better way to handle bank failures that cross international lines.
Meeting as the Financial Stability Board, central bankers and regulators from the largest economies and financial centres agreed to force all of the “global systemically important financial institutions” (GSIFIs) to write recovery and resolution plans, essentially guidebooks aimed at helping regulators stabilise or wind them down in a crisis.
However, crafting these plans, often called “living wills”, has proved harder than expected, and the FSB has had to push back its end of 2012 deadline to later this year. The group is meeting today to discuss resolution, among other thorny issues.