Banks Didn't Pay FDIC Premiums For A Decade

[1968again]

Now-needy FDIC collected little in premiums

With fund going strong, banks didn't pay for decade

WASHINGTON - The federal agency that insures bank deposits, which is asking for emergency powers to borrow up to $500 billion to take over failed banks, is facing a potential major shortfall in part because it collected no insurance premiums from most banks from 1996 to 2006.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which insures deposits up to $250,000, tried for years to get congressional authority to collect the premiums in case of a looming crisis. But Congress believed that the fund was so well-capitalized - and that bank failures were so infrequent - that there was no need to collect the premiums for a decade, according to banking officials and analysts.

Now with 25 banks having failed last year, 17 so far this year, and many more expected in the coming months, the FDIC has proposed large new premiums for banks at the very time when many can least afford to pay. The agency collected $3 billion in the fees last year and has proposed collecting up to $27 billion this year, prompting an outcry from some banks that say it will force them to raise consumer fees and curtail lending.

To possibly reduce the fee increase, the FDIC has asked Congress for the temporary authority to borrow as much as $500 billion from the US Treasury - up from the current $30 billion limit - in case the number of bank failures increases even more dramatically. If Congress approves the measure, to borrow more than $100 billion, the FDIC would still need permission from the Federal Reserve, the Treasury Department, and the White House.

As of Dec. 31, the FDIC had $18.9 billion in its insurance fund - down from $52.4 billion a year earlier - in addition to $22 billion that it has set aside for pending bank failures. The agency has projected it will need $65 billion to take over failed banks through 2013.

But if the FDIC suddenly had to take over a giant bank such as Citigroup or Bank of America, the fund would be drained "in a flash," said Cornelius Hurley, director of the Boston University law school's Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washingt...ge=full?ref=fp1

[ki46dinah]

lol, isnt our government grand some times?

I wonder where the money for those premiums was going to?....

[1968again]

lol, isnt our government grand some times?

I wonder where the money for those premiums was going to?....

Heh...good question.

[silaslang]

This crap just gets worse and worse, it's like we threw away every single economic principle in this country and got completely greedy and are now wondering why this is happening.

In the 80's we all thought we would die from nuclear war from Russia, it's going to turn out society is going to crumble from economic erosion from the inside out that will put us back to the dark ages.

[GEORGIAfan]

from 96-20 Cankle competitions in the white house for Bill and lawyers, and with Bush War and more Oil.

[shc]

The banks weren't paying them. So I would assume into the ceo and board's pockets. The gov't wasn't getting it.