Banking

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) issued advance notice of a proposed rule that would make it easier to ascertain whether FDIC insurance covered deposits in banks with more than 250,000 customer accounts and $2 billion in domestic deposits ( www.fdic.gov/news/news/press/2005/pr12205.html ).

The last time the FDIC updated its deposit insurance determination process was in 1999. Although the largest number of insurance-status determinations the FDIC had performed at a single failed institution involved approximately 90,000 accounts, because of consolidation in the industry certain larger banks now have more than 40 million accounts. The corporation welcomes suggestions on how to facilitate determinations and resolve bank failures more economically and efficiently; responses are due by March 13, 2006.