Banks’ ‘living wills’ aren’t looking so good

A report today from two bank regulators, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, basically said that “too big to fail” thing.

It was an update on how banks are faring in putting together their living wills, as mandated by the Dodd-Frank law.  Basically, it explains how they would handle failure without involving the government. 

It’s not looking so good. In the words of Thomas Hoenig, the second in command at the FDIC:

“Despite the thousands of pages of material these firms submitted, the plans provide no credible or clear path through bankruptcy that doesn’t require unrealistic assumptions and direct or indirect public support.” 

In other words:  Wall Street’s totally still going to hose us.