WASHINGTON - Reminding members of the House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit on Banking and Financial Services that "as we learned in the late 80's, the deposit insurance funds stand between bank failures and the American taxpayer," FDIC Chairman Donna Tanoue urged the subcommittee to recommend a merger of the FDIC and Bank Insurance Fund.
In her testimony before the subcommittee, Tanoue offered that a merger of the insurance funds "would ensure that the risks to the deposit insurance system are as diversified as possible, thus reducing the concentrations of risks by size and numbers of institutions, by geography and by types of products.
"With ongoing consolidation in the industry, the FDIC's risk is increasingly located in a few large institutions...The timing for a merger could not be better, given the current health of the bank and thrift industries and the condition of the funds. "
Tanoue said a merger of the insurance funds is "in the best interest of the American taxpayer."
