Bank Failure Impact to be Revealed

NEW YORK (AP) _ The FDIC will reveal Thursday how much its reserves have been depleted by all the bank failures this year — 81 so far.

That may give a clue whether it will need help itself before the year is out, as some analysts suspect. At least one banking expert thinks the public should expect the fund to “go negative” at some point. That’s happened only once before — during the savings and loan crisis of the early 1990s.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has two options to replenish its insurance fund in the short run: It can charge banks higher fees, or it can take the more radical step of borrowing from the U.S. Treasury. Both carry risks.

But bank customers needn’t worry. The FDIC is fully backed by the government.

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