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Deposit Insurance

Fund Management

Fund Management

The FDIC manages the level of the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) to maintain public confidence in the U.S. financial system and to resolve failed banks.

Fund Size

The FDIC set out a comprehensive, long-range management plan for the DIF that was designed: (1) to reduce pro-cyclicality in the risk-based assessment system by allowing moderate, steady assessment rates throughout economic and credit cycles; and (2) to maintain a positive fund balance even during a banking crisis by setting an appropriate target fund size and a strategy for assessment rates and dividends. The current DIF balance and Fund Management are published in the Quarterly Banking Profile.

Designated Reserve Ratio

The Federal Deposit Insurance Act requires the FDIC's Board of Directors to set a target or Designated Reserve Ratio (DRR) for the DIF annually. The DRR is the total of the DIF divided by the total estimated insured deposits of the industry. Under the long-range plan, the FDIC set the DRR at 2.0 percent and set a schedule of assessment rates that would progressively decrease when the Fund Management exceeds 2.0 percent and 2.5 percent. Since 2010, the Board has adopted a 2.0 percent DRR each year. An analysis using historical fund loss and simulated income data from 1950 to 2010 showed that the DRR would had to have exceeded 2.0 percent before the onset of the two crises that occurred during the past 30 years to have maintained both a positive fund balance and stable assessment rates throughout both crises. The FDIC views the 2.0 percent DRR as a long-term goal and the minimum level needed to withstand future crises of the magnitude of past crises.

The DIF balance and reserve ratio are published in the Quarterly Banking Profile.

Dividends

Although the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 allows the FDIC's Board to issue dividends from the DIF if the reserve ratio exceeds 1.5 percent, the Board has suspended dividends indefinitely under the comprehensive plan to increase the probability that the reserve ratio will reach a level sufficient to withstand a future crisis. In lieu of dividends, the Board adopted a set of progressively lower assessment rates when the reserve ratio exceeds 2.0 percent and 2.5 percent. These lower rates serve much the same function as dividends, but provide more stable and predictable effective assessment rates.

Restoration Plan

Extraordinary growth in insured deposits during the first and second quarters of 2020 caused the DIF reserve ratio to decline below the statutory minimum of 1.35 percent as of June 30, 2020. In September 2020, the FDIC Board of Directors adopted a Restoration Plan to restore the reserve ratio to at least 1.35 percent within eight years, absent extraordinary circumstances, as required by the Federal Deposit Insurance Act. The Restoration Plan maintained the assessment rate schedules in place at the time and required the FDIC to update its analysis and projections for the DIF balance and reserve ratio at least semiannually.

In the semiannual update for the Restoration Plan in June 2022, the FDIC projected that the reserve ratio was at risk of not reaching the statutory minimum of 1.35 percent by September 30, 2028, the statutory deadline to restore the reserve ratio. Based on this update, the FDIC Board approved an Amended Restoration Plan, and concurrently proposed an increase in initial base deposit insurance assessment rate schedules uniformly by 2 basis points, applicable to all insured depository institutions.

In October 2022, the FDIC Board finalized the increase with an effective date of January, 1, 2023, applicable to the first quarterly assessment period of 2023 (i.e., January 1 through March 31, 2023). The revised assessment rate schedules are intended to increase the likelihood that the reserve ratio of the DIF reaches the statutory minimum level of 1.35 percent by September 30, 2028.

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Last Updated: March 14, 2024