FDIC again cuts estimate of uninsured deposits at IndyMac

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The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. keeps finding more IndyMac Bank deposits that are entitled to insurance coverage. And that’s upping the agency’s bill in the Pasadena bank’s collapse.

My colleague E. Scott Reckard reports that the FDIC’s latest tally of uninsured deposits at IndyMac has reduced the total to $541 million, the second downward revision of the estimate since the government seized the failed mortgage lender July 11.

The FDIC originally estimated that $1 billion of IndyMac’s $19 billion in deposits was uninsured. Last month, the agency revised the figure down to about $600 million.

The latest number resulted from the ongoing, tedious process of interviewing depositors about complicated accounts, especially trust accounts for which every beneficiary must be verified, FDIC spokesman David Barr told Reckard.

Although FDIC insurance is capped at $100,000 per customer per bank, depositors can insure many times that amount by setting up joint accounts.

Some IndyMac depositors still haven’t responded to phone calls and letters asking them to discuss their trust accounts and beneficiaries, the FDIC told Reckard. Of IndyMac’s 275,000 accounts, ‘We are still waiting to hear from about 160 customers,’ Barr said.

The FDIC estimated at first that IndyMac’s collapse would cost the insurance fund $4 billion to $8 billion. That figure has since been revised to $8.9 billion.