Citigroup said its plan, "identifies a variety of actions that could be taken, each of which demonstrates that Citi is resolvable in a manner that addresses potential systemic disruption in the U.S. or global financial markets without the use of taxpayer funds."

Bank of America did not go as far as other banks in drawing conclusions about the potential success of its resolution plan. Instead it generally described various resolution regimes - including using the bankruptcy code or under FDIC receivership.

The regulators plan to give feedback to the banks on the initial plans by September. They can force changes to the structure of banks or other large financial companies if they believe the institution could not easily be liquidated once in trouble.

Congress called for the plans in Dodd-Frank to ease concerns that some banks are too big and too complex to fail and to avoid a repeat of the massive taxpayer-funded bailouts seen during the financial crisis.