"More than two-thirds of all banks and thrifts turned a profit in that period, but their earnings were outstripped by large losses at a number of major banks."
Related: Small Banks to Bail Out Fed
"FDIC says insurance fund may dry up" by Bloomberg News | March 5, 2009
WASHINGTON - Chairwoman Sheila Bair said the fund the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. uses to protect customer deposits at US banks could dry up amid a surge in bank failures. She was responding to an industry outcry against new fees approved by the agency.
Related: FDIC Fee F***
"Without these assessments, the deposit insurance fund could become insolvent this year," Bair wrote in a letter Monday to the industry. US community banks plan to flood the FDIC with about 5,000 letters to protest the fees, according to a trade group.
"A large number" of bank failures may occur through 2010 because of "rapidly deteriorating economic conditions," Bair said in the letter. "Without substantial amounts of additional assessment revenue in the near future, current projections indicate that the fund balance will approach zero or even become negative."
The FDIC last week approved a one-time emergency fee and other assessment increases on the industry to rebuild a fund to repay customers for deposits of as much as $250,000 when a bank fails. The fees, opposed by the industry, may generate $27 billion this year after the fund fell to $18.9 billion in the fourth quarter from $34.6 billion in the previous period, the FDIC said.
The fund, which lost $33.5 billion in 2008, was drained by 25 bank failures last year. Sixteen banks have failed so far this year, further straining the fund. Smaller banks are outraged over the one-time fee, which could wipe out 50 to 100 percent of a bank's 2009 earnings, Camden Fine, president of the Independent Community Bankers of America, said Tuesday.
"I've never seen emotions like this," said Fine, adding that he's gotten more than 1,000 e-mails and phone calls from bankers.--more--"
Hey, bankers, let me introduce you to a LITTLE FRIEND of ours called the GUILLOTINE!!!!
I'd type "shape up, fuckers," but we now know your greed-infested souls are incapable of that. See you at the slicer, shitters!
