The failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) almost $23B.
The U.S. agency is seeking to shift an unusually large portion of those losses to large lenders.
- The FDIC told lawmakers on Wednesday that it will impose a "special assessment fee" to recoup losses from recent bank bailouts.
- FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg said the agency will take into account size differences between banks when issuing the fee.
- The largest U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, may be forced to pay billions of dollars each to cover the costs of the fee.
- U.S. banks pay fees to the FDIC’s deposit insurance fund every quarter, which vary depending on the size of a bank's assets and insured deposits.
- The FDIC faces political pressure to reduce the exposure of small regional banks to the "special assessment fee."
- The FDIC's losses were exacerbated by the agency's decision to extend its standard $250,000 deposit insurance guarantee to all the deposits in Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.
