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.
