Who writes it
Unlike recovery plans, which banks write for themselves, resolution plans are drawn up by the resolution authority — the SRB, working with national authorities, for significant banking union groups. The bank's role is to supply data and to remove impediments the plan identifies.
What it contains
The plan fixes the preferred strategy — typically single point of entry through the group's resolution entity — demonstrates how critical functions would continue, sets the MREL calibration that makes the strategy executable, and assesses resolvability: whether the group's structure, operational continuity arrangements, and access to financial market infrastructures would actually withstand execution. Where substantive impediments exist, authorities can require divestments or structural changes.
Why it matters outside a crisis
Resolution planning is the channel through which the framework disciplines banks in normal times: MREL decisions, subordination requirements and resolvability expectations all flow from it, annually, whether or not any bank is close to failing.