The country’s biggest banks have long complained that the Federal Reserve’s stress tests are overly onerous and opaque. On Friday, the members of the central bank’s Board of Governors voted to give banks many of the changes they had long sought.

Introduced in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, the annual exams test how banks would withstand various disasters. Regulators then impose a capital buffer requirement on each bank, forcing it to hold assets as a cushion against future losses. Banks prefer to keep those buffers as small as possible, which gives them more leeway to lend and invest.

The changes would eliminate much of the secrecy around the exams by requiring the Fed to publish in advance the models it will use for the exams and the specific economic scenarios it will test each year.

The board voted, 6 to 1, in favor of its proposed overhaul. Only one governor, Michael Barr, voted against it.

The proposed exam changes are not expected to meaningfully alter the capital requirements for the companies subject to the tests, the board said. The proposal will be open until late January for public comment before it is enacted.

The change was proposed after a coalition of trade groups sued the Fed in late 2024 over what they called “vacillating and unexplained requirements” in the exam process. The banks sought clearer guidance on the standards applied during the tests and on the scenarios that would be tested.

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