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The FDIC Has Limits On What It Can Do

Wall Street Journal
May 4, 2009
  1. May 4, 2009
    Wall Street Journal

John Emshwiller's article "Eight Years After Bank's Seizure, A Depositor Waits" (April 27) misses an opportunity to educate readers about how deposit insurance works and to understand our limits. Superior Bank was closed eight years ago because it was critically undercapitalized. As is customary in bank failures, Superior depositors had immediate and full access to their insured deposits the next business day. Just like any other insurance, deposit insurance is subject to specific limits. It is why the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is committed to ensuring that depositors are empowered with the information to fully take advantage of FDIC coverage and have set up a special Web site, myfdicinsurance.gov, to help consumers make maximum use of our coverage.

While we are sympathetic to any customer who has uninsured deposits when a bank fails, the return of uninsured deposits is not guaranteed. Superior depositors have already received 70% of their uninsured funds back via dividends from the receivership and are "waiting" for amounts above this.

Andrew Gray
Director, Public Affairs
FDIC

Last Updated: May 4, 2009