In Brief: Mexico to Cut Coverage On High-End Deposits

Mexico's Deposit Insurance Institute, the IPAB, has published a five-year program that will gradually reduce insurance coverage for bank depositors.

The maximum coverage, currently unlimited, is to decline to the equivalent of about $100,000 per savings account by 2005.

The agency is deliberately shifting risk away from smaller depositors and toward larger-balance customers and corporations considered more able to judge institutions' performance.

IPAB executive secretary Vicente Corta said the plan achieves two objectives: "that people have their savings protected, and that the banks have an incentive to consolidate themselves."

He said the timetable "implies that by Jan. 1, 2003, the financial system has to be fully consolidated," with a shareholders' equity infusion totaling $5 billion.

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