Capital Briefs: FDIC Rescinds Policy on Assistance Requests

As part of a regulatory streamlining, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has rescinded its policy statement on when to provide assistance to troubled financial institutions that are still operating.

Such requests are nearly moot because placing troubled institutions into receiverships is normally less costly to the insurance funds, and the FDIC must take the least expensive course, the agency said.

Only two assistance proposals were received from 1993 to 1996, and both were rejected. The nearly five-year-old statement also was made redundant by existing law, the FDIC said.