The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) plans to release a proposal to replenish funds spent bailing out depositors of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank in March by charging fees to banks with over $10 billion in assets, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to Bloomberg.
The smallest lenders with under $10 billion in assets would be exempt from these fees, according to the sources who spoke to Bloomberg. There were over 4,000 banks beneath that threshold at the end of 2022; however, there were 145 banks between $10 billion and $250 billion in assets, according to FDIC data.
“The FDIC gets its money from banks by levying fees and those charges are passed on to customers,” E.J. Antoni, research fellow for Regional Economics at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis, previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “To cover the cost of the three recent bank collapses, the FDIC will be levying a ‘special assessment’ that will ultimately increase the costs customers are paying.”
The Deposit Insurance Fund, which the FDIC uses to cover depositors, was depleted by an estimated $22.5 billion when combining the bailouts of SVB and Signature, according to a statement by FDIC Chairman Martin J. Gruenberg. The FDIC estimated that roughly $19.2 billion of that total was attributable to the cost of covering uninsured deposits due to fears that the banks’ failures posed systemic risks to the financial sector.
Certain banks with up to $50 billion in assets may also evade the fees depending on the size of their deposit portfolio, according to two of the sources who spoke to Bloomberg. They can be paid all at once or over two years. (RELATED: Goldman Sachs Under Investigation After Advising Silicon Valley Bank Before Collapse)
A Silicon Valley Bank office is seen in Tempe, Arizona, on March 14, 2023. – With hindsight, there were warning signs ahead of last week’s spectacular collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, missed not only by investors, but by bank regulators. Just why the oversight failed remained a hot question among banking experts, with some focusing on the weakness of US rules. (Photo by REBECCA NOBLE/AFP via Getty Images)
The special assessment fees will not recuperate any of the estimated $13 billion in losses related to the collapse of First Republic Bank on Monday, according to two of the sources who spoke to Bloomberg. That will be refilled through separate quarterly fees that every FDIC-insured bank pays.
An FDIC spokesperson confirmed that its Board was discussing the proposal, but did not comment further or confirm Bloomberg’s reporting.
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