FDIC

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. issued proposals Thursday that would reduce planning requirements for big banks and slash deposit insurance prices, citing the financial health of the Deposit Insurance Fund.

William Isaac led the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. through the banking and thrift crises of the 1980s and was a frequent commentator on bank regulation after his time in public service.

Chair Travis Hill said the Silicon Valley Bank failure showed banks can't always sell securities fast enough to cover deposit outflows, but acknowledged the "stigma problem" with discount window borrowing remains unsolved.

Regulators have suggested changes to the ratings system they use to gauge banks' safety and soundness that would reduce scrutiny of management quality. It would leave them blind to clear signs of future problems.

Regulators have signaled that the speed of progress in generative and agentic artificial intelligence makes producing definitive guidance impractical. That does not remove banks' obligation to face up to their risks.

In passing the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act, Congress intended to create national rules that would guide lending across state borders. States can't simply opt out of them.

Chair Travis Hill wants to shift resolution planning away from lengthy bank-generated narratives and toward rapid access to critical operational data during failures.

The FDIC's recent analysis of the deposit flight that helped take down Silicon Valley, Signature and First Republic banks in 2023 is informative. However, it leaves unanswered some important questions about regulators' assumptions related to brokered deposits.

A proposal from the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council to reshape the CAMELS rating system, which, combined with other related policy moves, are teeing up a sea change in the way banks and their federal supervisors go about their respective businesses.

Members of the House Financial Services Committee pressed prudential bank and credit union regulators about the potential risks of bank lending to private credit firms in a hearing Thursday.

The heads of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., National Credit Union Administration, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Vice Chair of Supervision at the Federal Reserve are slated to appear before the House Financial Services Committee Thursday morning.

A revised Basel III endgame proposal from the Federal Reserve would fundamentally change the economics of mortgage lending for banks — improving returns, reshaping pricing and reopening a market they sidelined.

The Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Tuesday they had removed references to reputational risk from certain interagency guidance documents, furthering the administration's state goal of eliminating reputational risk from bank supervision.

Farmers and Mechanics Federal Savings Bank in Bloomfield, Indiana, last turned a profit in 2023.

A proposal from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. would require the agency to notify Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network 30 days prior to major anti-money laundering actions against stablecoin issuers. The rule would also allow issuers to directly share normally confidential information with Fincen during the enforcement process.

The use of cryptocurrency products will only go truly mainstream when everyday consumers feel confident that their assets are not at risk of disappearing because of a mistake or an oversight.

Yotta marketed accounts as FDIC-insured and impossible to lose, then moved $28 million of Californians' money to a Synapse arm its own executives didn't trust.

A report from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. found that business clients with large volumes of uninsured deposits fled Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and First Republic at unprecedented speed, contributing to those banks' collapses.

Calls to replace proposed deposit insurance reforms with a revived Transaction Account Guarantee program would make the federal government's role in a bank run purely reactive. That would be a mistake.

Two U.S. banks have failed so far in 2026, continuing the recent pattern of smaller lenders collapsing abruptly due to firm-specific issues. January's failure of Metropolitan Capital Bank & Trust and the early May failure of Community Bank & Trust – West Georgia both fit that mold.