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☆ Your Online Lender May Not Be a Bank. Here’s How to Keep Your Money Safe.
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-10 | by ( Rob Copeland | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

If it looks like a bank, advertises like a bank and accepts money like a bank — it still might not be a bank. That is the lesson being meted out in painful fashion to tens of thousands of depositors who entrusted their savings to online-only lenders. But to the surprise of many depositors, these companies merely collect money and funnel it through intermediaries to banks. Because Synapse was not a bank, the F.D.I.C. insurance did not automatically apply, and now nearly $100 million of deposits have been frozen or lost.

Organizations: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Synapse Financial Locations: U.S

☆ Biden’s Pick to Lead F.D.I.C. Faces Little Resistance in Senate Hearing
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-11 | by ( Emily Flitter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

With a broad smile and crisply delivered answers, Christy Goldsmith Romero, President Biden’s nominee to take over the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, appeared to cruise through her Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday. Ms. Goldsmith Romero’s testimony, before the Senate Banking Committee, is the first step in a process that could put her in charge of the regulator that oversees smaller banks, administers the fund that protects bank depositors’ cash and steps in when a bank fails; it was recently roiled by revelations of widespread sexual harassment and abuse of junior employees by their longtime managers. Over the course of the hearing on Thursday, Ms. Goldsmith Romero’s testimony drew praise not only from Democrats but also from some Republicans, suggesting that she was likely to be confirmed for the position. Ms. Goldsmith Romero is a lawyer who, after the financial crisis, spent more than 12 years in an office created by Congress to investigate fraud and other misconduct by banks that received money from the government’s roughly $450 billion crisis rescue package. Her work exposing fraud often put her at odds with not only bankers but also some government officials who were concerned about the potential damage it would do to overall public opinion of the bailout.

Persons: crisply, Christy Goldsmith Romero, Biden’s, Ms, Goldsmith Romero’s, Goldsmith Romero Organizations: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Banking Committee

☆ Former Bank Bailout Watchdog Is Choice to Lead F.D.I.C.
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-13 | by ( Emily Flitter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Christy Goldsmith Romero, a lawyer who spent more than a decade rooting out fraud and other bad behavior at banks that received federal aid in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, has been chosen to be the next leader of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the White House announced on Thursday. Her pick is the first step in President Biden’s quest to quickly replace the current chair, Martin Gruenberg, the bank regulator’s longtime leader who said last month that he would resign in response to reports of vast workplace abuse and harassment at the agency. If the Senate Banking Committee acts quickly to hold a hearing and a vote on Ms. Goldsmith Romero’s candidacy, she has a chance of assuming the role before the presidential election in November. In a statement emailed to reporters, the committee’s chairman, Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, said Ms. Goldsmith Romero “would bring to the F.D.I.C. decades of financial services experience, including valuable experience.”“She has proven herself to be a strong, independent and fair regulator who is not afraid to do what’s right,” he said.

Persons: Christy Goldsmith Romero, Biden’s, Martin Gruenberg, Goldsmith Romero’s, Sherrod Brown, Goldsmith Romero “, ” Organizations: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, White, Committee, Democrat Locations: Ohio

☆ Biden Nears Pick for Next F.D.I.C. Chair
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-11 | by ( Emily Flitter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Three weeks after President Biden vowed to pick a new leader for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the bank regulator shaken by a vast workplace abuse scandal, a front-runner has emerged: Christy Goldsmith Romero, who sits on the five-member Commodity Futures Trading Commission, according to two people with knowledge of the administration’s thinking. Ms. Goldsmith Romero is a lawyer who, after the financial crisis, spent more than 12 years in an office created by Congress to investigate fraud and other misconduct by banks that received money from the government’s roughly $450 billion crisis rescue package, the Troubled Asset Relief Program. From 2011 to 2022, Ms. Goldsmith Romero led the office as the special inspector-general for the program. Mr. Biden has not made a final decision. Ms. Goldsmith Romero’s position as the front-runner for the job was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Persons: Biden, Christy Goldsmith Romero, Goldsmith Romero, Goldsmith Organizations: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Futures Trading Commission, Troubled Asset, Wall Street

☆ Bank Regulator Overseeing ‘Toxic’ Culture Loses Key Supporter in Senate
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-20 | by ( Emily Flitter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

He called for Mr. Biden to nominate a successor and for the Senate to quickly confirm that person, who could then take over for Mr. Gruenberg. “There must be fundamental changes at the F.D.I.C.,” Mr. Brown said. “Those changes begin with new leadership, who must fix the agency’s toxic culture and put the women and men who work there — and their mission — first.”An F.D.I.C. spokesman declined to comment. Since then, Mr. Gruenberg has faced some calls to resign from members of both political parties who said they felt he had played too big a role in shaping the agency’s culture in recent years, including by making the agency’s staff fear communicating with him.

Persons: Sherrod Brown of, Biden, Martin Gruenberg, Brown, Gruenberg, ” Mr, Cleary Gottlieb Organizations: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Banking Committee, Senate, Mr, Street Locations: Sherrod Brown of Ohio

☆ Democrats Batter Bank Regulator Over F.D.I.C.’s ‘Toxic’ Workplace Culture
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-15 | by ( Emily Flitter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Martin Gruenberg is still the leader of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, an agency that supervises U.S. banks, but after a bipartisan grilling on Wednesday by members of a House committee overseeing bank regulators, he appeared to be hanging on by a thread. Democrats expressed dismay over his responses to the crisis at his agency, after a scathing report of a culture of widespread sexual harassment and discrimination. One congresswoman appeared to call for him to resign, as Republicans have been doing for months. “Personally, I do not have confidence that you can continue to lead in this role,” Representative Ayanna S. Pressley, Democrat of Massachusetts, told Mr. Gruenberg during an exchange. (Two other federal bank regulators, the acting comptroller of the currency, Michael Hsu, and the Federal Reserve vice chair, Michael Barr, also offered testimony on bank regulatory matters, but much of the committee’s focus was on the F.D.I.C.)

Persons: Martin Gruenberg, Ayanna S, Pressley, Gruenberg, “, Michael Hsu, Michael Barr Organizations: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Federal Reserve Locations: Massachusetts

☆ Inquiry Finds a Toxic Culture at the F.D.I.C., and Takes Aim at Its Leader
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-07 | by ( Emily Flitter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A report on workplace culture at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation released on Tuesday revealed a broad, yearslong pattern of sexual harassment, discrimination and abuse of mostly women and members of minority groups by senior officials. The findings are likely to lead to another potentially bruising round of questions for the agency’s chair, Martin Gruenberg, who is scheduled to testify in Congress later this month. It described “fiefdoms” in regional offices, where senior managers protected other longtime employees from potential consequences stemming from more junior employees’ claims of mistreatment. Examples of the behavior, including senior examiners texting junior women pictures of their genitalia or taking them to brothels, were first reported by The Wall Street Journal in November. Tuesday’s report was the result of an independent investigation by Cleary Gottlieb, which was hired by a special committee created by the agency’s board after The Journal’s report.

Persons: Martin Gruenberg, ”, “, Cleary Gottlieb, ’, Tuesday’s Organizations: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Wall Street

☆ Opinion | When Banks Fail, Why Do We Keep Bailing Out Uninsured Depositors?
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-01 | by ( Peter Coy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Another bad result is that zombie banks stay in operation longer than they should because uninsured depositors happily supply them with funds, knowing the F.D.I.C. is experiencing “mission creep,” taking on a responsibility for uninsured depositors that it was never assigned. In a footnote of a 2001 document posted on its website that’s intended to provide guidance to other nations’ regulators, it says that making uninsured depositors whole can be least costly “in rare cases.” (Which means: not more than 90 percent of the time.) staff members, referring to full bank liquidations in the period before the financial crisis, said “a least-cost resolution almost always includes imposing losses on uninsured depositors.” Another F.D.I.C. So I have to go by what the agency has stated in the past about its resolution practices.

Persons: Ohlrogge, F.D.I.C, “ Organizations: Deposit Insurance Fund, Office

☆ Regulators Seize Republic First, a Troubled Philadelphia Bank
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-26 | by ( Kashmir Hill | More About Kashmir Hill | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Regulators late Friday seized Republic First Bancorp, a troubled Philadelphia lender, in the first U.S. bank failure this year. Republic First Bancorp, known as Republic Bank, had about $4 billion in deposits at the end of January and assets worth $6 billion, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said in a statement. said, with Republic First’s 32 branches in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York reopening as soon as Saturday as Fulton Bank branches. Founded in 1988, Republic First was smaller than the midsize banks that collapsed last year — including First Republic Bank and Silicon Valley Bank, whose assets each topped $200 billion. expects the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund to be $667 million.

Organizations: First Bancorp, Republic First Bancorp, Republic Bank, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Fulton Bank of Lancaster, Fulton Bank, First Republic Bank, Silicon Valley Bank, Deposit Insurance Fund Locations: Philadelphia, U.S, Republic, Pa, Pennsylvania , New Jersey, New York

☆ Biggest U.S. Banks Earn Billions, Even After Insurance Bill
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-12 | by ( Emily Flitter | Stacy Cowley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The nation’s largest banks are churning out profits as interest rates remain high, even though the lenders have had to set aside billions of dollars to replenish a deposit insurance fund that was heavily depleted by a crisis among midsize banks last spring. Citigroup, which is in the midst of a global restructuring, reported a net loss of $1.8 billion for the quarter, compared with a profit of $2.5 billion a year earlier. In the last quarter of 2023, JPMorgan earned $9.3 billion, or $3.04 per share, compared with $11 billion a year earlier. A special assessment by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation had reduced per-share earnings by 74 cents, the bank said. Analysts had been expecting per-share earnings of around $3.32, so investors considered the bank’s performance to be a win once the F.D.I.C.’s one-time bill of $2.9 billion was taken into account.

Persons: Jane Fraser Organizations: JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Locations: Wells, Russia, Argentina

☆ What Biden Can Learn from Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’ - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( Diana B. Henriques | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” helped raise America’s economy out of the Great Depression in the 1930s and set the country on course to become a superpower. And now, for the first time in decades, we have someone in the White House who has a new New Deal within his grasp. President Biden’s infrastructure investment bill echoes Roosevelt’s expansive public works projects; his vocal support for organized labor, his targeted debt relief efforts and his plans to strengthen domestic high-tech manufacturing evoke other Roosevelt priorities. The Inflation Reduction Act, too, includes money to bolster public infrastructure and address climate change, both goals Roosevelt most likely would have embraced, given his support for public works and conservation. The most significant hole in the New Deal analogy: financial reform.

Persons: Franklin D, Roosevelt’s, ”, Roosevelt Organizations: White House, Mutual, Securities and Exchange Commission

☆ A Brain Drain Is Hurting the F.D.I.C.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Alan Rappeport | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The March failures of Signature Bank, which was overseen by the F.D.I.C., and Silicon Valley Bank, which was regulated by the Federal Reserve, threatened to set off runs at regional banks across the country. Biden administration officials and federal regulators have described the recent bank failures as largely the result of poor management. In a report released in late April reviewing the failure of Signature Bank, the F.D.I.C. pointed to its own “persistent” staffing shortages as a problem that has hampered its ability to supervise lenders. It’s always a risk at any regulatory agency.”The F.D.I.C.

☆ F.D.I.C. Proposes Broadening Bank Insurance for Businesses
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Alan Rappeport | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

officials acknowledged on Monday that those bank runs caught them by surprise. As part of a review into what took place, the regulator has been studying ways to improve the system. Its report looked at the viability of raising the existing insurance cap; expanding it so that deposit insurance is unlimited; and creating a more targeted approach that would provide higher levels of deposit insurance to business accounts that are used for payroll processing. expressed concerns that broadly expanding deposit insurance could create “moral hazard” problems, that is, banks would be shielded from the consequences of making risky investments. It favored offering more protection to business payment accounts because that money is generally used for paying employees rather than investments.

☆ A Timeline of How the Banking Crisis Has Unfolded
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Madeleine Ngo | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +9 min

March 9Gregory Becker, the chief executive of Silicon Valley Bank, urged venture capital firms to remain calm on a conference call. March 10In the biggest bank failure since the 2008 financial crisis, Silicon Valley Bank collapsed after a run on deposits . Regional bank stocks plunged after the unexpected seizure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank , with shares of First Republic tumbling 60 percent. The Treasury secretary believed the actions by the private sector would help underscore confidence in the stability of the banking system. April 28The Fed released a report faulting itself for failing to “take forceful enough action” ahead of Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse.

Even so, the U.S. financial system has plenty of problems. The lender, founded in 1985, was the 14th-largest bank in the United States at the start of this year. Its shares lost nearly all of their value after a relentless series of steep declines that began as Silicon Valley Bank was teetering. reached out to other financial institutions, including JPMorgan Chase, PNC Financial Services and Bank of America, seeking bids for the First Republic. As part of the bidding process, banks were also asked what parts of the bank they wouldn’t accept.

Lawmakers and regulators have spent years erecting laws and rules meant to limit the power and size of the largest U.S. banks. But those efforts were cast aside in a frantic late-night effort by government officials to contain a banking crisis by seizing and selling First Republic Bank to the country’s biggest bank, JPMorgan Chase. The F.D.I.C.’s decision appears, for now, to have quelled nearly two months of simmering turmoil in the banking sector that followed the sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in early March. “This part of the crisis is over,” Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan’s chief executive, told analysts on Monday in a conference call to discuss the acquisition. For Mr. Dimon, it was a reprise of his role in the 2008 financial crisis when JPMorgan acquired Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual at the behest of federal regulators.

If there has been a lesson in the recent spate of bank failures, it is that deposit flight can now happen quickly. It no longer requires a teller to hand money to customers waiting in long lines around the block. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation explicitly insures the first $250,000 in any account, but nothing over that. to guarantee all deposits, but there may be a more strategic, surgical and free-market solution. Consider this: What if the banking system coalesced around a separate insurance program — we’ll call it F.D.I.C.+ — for deposits above $250,000?

☆ Regulators Prepare to Seize and Sell First Republic
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Lauren Hirsch | Maureen Farrell | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Federal regulators were racing on Saturday to seize and sell the troubled First Republic Bank before financial markets open on Monday, according to four people with knowledge of the matter, in a bid to put an end to a banking crisis that began last month with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. has been talking with banks that include JPMorgan Chase and PNC Financial Services about a potential deal, two of the people said. Any buyer would most likely assume the deposits of First Republic, eliminating the need for a government guarantee of deposits in excess of $250,000 — the limit for deposit insurance. would need to decide if it would seize First Republic anyway and take ownership itself. In that case, federal officials could invoke a systemic risk exception to protect those bigger deposits, something they did after the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in March.

First Republic Bank was forced to seek a lifeline this week, receiving tens of billions of dollars from other banks. These are known as unrealized losses — they turn into real losses only if the banks have to sell the assets. +2 % 0 –4 First Republic Pacific Western Signature −8 Plotted quarterly ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 +2 % 0 –4 Silicon Valley Western Alliance Zions −8 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 +2 % 0 First Republic Pacific Western Signature –4 −8 Plotted quarterly ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 +2 % 0 Silicon Valley Western Alliance Zions –4 −8 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 +2 % 0 First Republic Pacific Western Signature –4 −8 Plotted quarterly ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 +2 % 0 Silicon Valley Western Alliance Zions –4 −8 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 Source: Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council Note: Includes both “held-to-maturity” and “available-for-sale” securities, meaning both long- and short-term investments. Banks’ cash and noncash assets Plotted quarterly $200 billion Pacific Western Signature 150 100 First Republic 50 0 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 $200 billion Western Alliance Zions 150 100 50 Silicon Valley 0 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 Banks’ cash and noncash assets $200 billion Pacific Western Signature 150 100 50 First Republic 0 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 $200 billion Western Alliance Zions 150 100 50 Silicon Valley 0 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 Source: Federal Financial Institutions Examination CouncilMidsize banks like SVB do not have the same regulatory oversight as the nation’s biggest banks, who, among other provisions, are subject to tougher requirements to have a certain amount of reserves in moments of crisis. Last weekend, the Fed announced a program that offers loans of up to one year to banks using the banks’ government bonds and certain other assets as collateral.

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