By Laura Conaway

The FDIC fund for protecting $4.5 trillion in U.S. bank deposits slipped by 20 percent to $10.4 billion at the end of June, the the agency reports. A year ago, the fund held more than $45.2 billion.

So far this year, 81 banks have failed, requiring expensive rescues from the FDIC. The number of banks on the FDIC's "Problem List" rose to 416 at June's end, from 305 in March.

In a press release, the FDIC noted that more than 28 percent of all member banks reported a net loss in the second quarter. The FDIC says that's because more debtors are failing to pay back the money they owe.

Losses on commercial paper, the giant short-term borrowing that fuels much of commerce as we know it, totaled $3.6 billion, up from $366 million last year. The percentage of loans and leases in arrears hit 4.35 percent, the highest level since the FDIC began tracking it 26 years ago.

The dismal economy is forcing banks to set aside more money to cover the losses. FDIC Chairwoman Sheila Bair wrote:

"Deteriorating loan quality is having the greatest impact on industry earnings as insured institutions continue to set aside reserves to cover loan losses. Of all the major earnings components, the amount that insured institutions added to their reserves for loan losses was, by far, the largest drag on industry earnings compared to a year ago."

This month the FDIC began changing the way it rescues banks. Typically, regulators let the FDIC take the worst of a bank's losses and fire-sale the assets to a healthy bank, which takes over. Now regulators using "clawback" provisions that require the incoming owner to share future profits with the FDIC. The FDIC may also ask for a bailout of their own -- the agency can borrow up to $500 billioin from the Treasury. "A decline in the fund balance does not diminish our ability to protect insured depositors," Bair said in the press release.

categories: News

10:42 - August 27, 2009

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