For 75th, a First
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is taking its show on the road.Chairman Sheila Bair and two other board members are scheduled to celebrate the agency's 75th birthday today by unveiling a print ad campaign touting the benefits of deposit insurance and starting a road tour to discuss them.
The campaign is the first in the agency's history.
Ms. Bair said in an interview that misinformation about the FDIC and deposit insurance is on the rise as a result of the credit crisis.
She recounted ads targeting senior citizens that falsely claimed the FDIC is insolvent, along with claims made on the Internet that it takes weeks or longer to get insured deposits from the agency after a bank fails. (In fact, it takes a few days at most, and the money often is available in less than 24 hours.)
In April the agency received 20,000 calls at its phone center, more than double its normal call volume, as consumers increasingly worried about the safety of their deposits.
"There will be an increase in the number of banks that fail and an increase in the troubled bank list," Ms. Bair said.
"It has created additional questions with depositors. We want to make sure they understand their money is safe."
One of the ads is targeted at retirees, which Ms. Bair said may be unaware that individual retirement accounts are now insured up to $250,000.
This summer she is planning to host panel discussions on financial education issues featuring local banks, consumer groups, and academics in four cities. The discussions will be held July 16 in Chicago, July 22 in San Francisco, Sept. 10 in Dallas, and Sept. 11 in Kansas City.
One of the main goals will be helping consumers differentiate between banks and other types of financial institutions, Ms. Bair said. "All financial institutions tend to get lumped together," she said.
"It's important for people to understand what FDIC-insured institutions are and how they are different from other financial services providers."
Friendly Lending
Being associated with Countrywide Financial Corp. is proving problematic in Washington these days.A day after Jim Johnson, the former Fannie Mae chief executive, was forced to resign from Sen. Barack Obama's vice presidential search committee for taking out cheap loans from Countrywide, Conde Nast Portfolio reported Thursday that Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd is facing a similar predicament.
The Connecticut Democrat apparently took out two mortgages — one for $503,000 and the other for $275,042 — through Countrywide's "Friends of Angelo" program, named after its chairman and CEO, Angelo Mozilo.
Aides to Sen. Dodd argued that he received the mortgages at fair rates. "The Dodds received a competitive rate on their loans," said Bryan DeAngelis, a spokesman for the senator. "They did not seek or anticipate any special treatment, and they were not aware of any."
Come Fly with Me
If you happened to sit next to former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on a plane, what would you talk about?If you are Federal Housing Finance Board Chairman Ronald Rosenfeld, reforming the government-sponsored enterprises, of course.
Mr. Rosenfeld opened the board's June meeting Tuesday by recounting his conversation with the ex-secretary, who was forced out of the Bush administration after Republicans lost control of Congress in 2006.
The discussion, on a flight to New York, "may be encouraging to those of us whose tenure on the board may be limited," said the Finance Board chairman, whose job would be eliminated by the GSE reform bill. "He pointed out … that there's life after government. He was in good spirits and said 'Don't worry about it. You'll be able to go on.' So I say that to all of you who are similarly situated with me."
Singing Points
Sen. Charles Schumer has found new inspiration for his criticism of Republicans, courtesy of Amy Winehouse, the Grammy-winning British singer whose drug use has been tabloid fodder.At a briefing with reporters Tuesday, Sen. Schumer quoted Ms. Winehouse's hit song, "Rehab," to drive home his message about the GOP, according to the newspaper Politico. "It's sort of like that song," Sen. Schumer said to reporters. "Democrats say, 'Let's legislate,' and … [Republicans] just say, 'No, no, no.' "
The senator continued to use the song to mock GOP members, saying "They need rehab, I guess," according to the paper. He then described a series of GOP filibusters on issues such as energy independence.
Reporters caught on to the senator's reference, but it was not so clear to Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., who had to ask whom Ms. Winehouse was.
An aide to Sen. Schumer told Politico that the New York Democrat's daughter put the song on the senator's iPod.
