WASHINGTON - AMERICA'S biggest banks that are found to need more capital after government stress tests will have one month to come up with a plan to raise the additional resources, federal regulators said on Wednesday.

The government also set conditions for how the nation's 19 largest banks will be allowed to exit from the US$700 billion (S$1.04 trillion) bailout programme. To qualify, a bank will have to demonstrate that it can borrow money without the support of an emergency programme established by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp in October at the height of the financial crisis.

The deadline and exit conditions were included in a joint statement released by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair and Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan.

The 19 banks were subjected to stress tests to determine whether they have enough capital to withstand an even more severe economic downturn.

The joint statement said that bank executives will need to provide a 'detailed description of the specific actions' they will take to boost their capital to the levels that the stress tests determined are needed.

Those plans can include efforts by the banks to raise more capital in the private sector, restructure the capital they currently control or sell of bank assets to raise capital.

While the selected banks develop plans to raise capital, they also will be required to review their existing management, including the board of directors, to 'assure that the leadership of the firm has sufficient expertise and ability to manage the risks presented' by the current economic environment, the statement said.

That environment includes the worst financial crisis in seven decades and a recession that is now the longest in the post World War II period.

Treasury and the bank regulators gave the banks that will need to raise more capital until Nov 9 to accomplish that task. -- AP