Fed to weigh in on bank dividends on Friday - report

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) - Some of the largest U.S. banks will be notified on Friday whether they passed a second round of stress tests conducted by the Federal Reserve, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The newspaper said the U.S. central bank will then allow banks to announce plans to raise their dividends, but are barred from discussing the specific results of the test.

The largest banks have been barred from raising their dividends -- which were slashed during the financial crisis -- until passing a second Fed stress test.

JPMorgan Chase & Co <JPM.N>, Wells Fargo & Co <WFC.N> and US Bancorp <USB.N> are expected to be among the first banks to increase their dividend, the Journal reported.

Each bank has previously said they plan to raise their dividends in 2011 soon after receiving approval to do so.

(Reporting by Joe Rauch; Editing by Gary Hill)