The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on Tuesday released proposed rules for large banks to keep more detailed records of their deposit accounts. The intent is to enable the agency to more quickly determine which customers are insured and thus, could get their deposits back when a bank fails.
“Typically, this money is available by the next business day, generally a Monday after a Friday failure,” the agency said in a press release announcing the proposal. “However, for a bank with a large number of deposit accounts, payments might be delayed if the bank’s records are unclear or incomplete, making it difficult to determine what is insured and what is not. A failed bank with multiple deposit systems could further complicate this work.”
The FDIC is now seeking feedback on ways it could strengthen requirements for deposit account recordkeeping and administration at institutions with a large number of deposit accounts.
“Timely access to insured deposits is critical to maintaining public confidence in the banking system,” said FDIC Chairman Martin J. Gruenberg.
Banks with less than two million in deposit accounts would be exempted from the new recordkeeping rules.
In the proposal, the agency is asking banks to detail any challenges they would face with the new rule, including detailing any additional costs and whether there are ways for banks to mitigate such costs.
A Reuters story on Tuesday said that large banks could very well protest the proposed rule because their compliance costs have already been “ramped up” due to a “raft of new rules,” which have also “sapped some of the most lucrative businesses after the 2007-09 financial crisis.”