BUSINESS BRIEFING / BANKING
Times Wire Reports
Facing a cascade of bank failures depleting the deposit insurance fund, federal regulators raised the fees paid by U.S. financial institutions and levied a hefty emergency premium in a bid to collect $27 billion this year.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. now expects that bank failures will cost the insurance fund about $65 billion through 2013, up from an earlier estimate of $40 billion. The bank failures, 16 already this year after 25 last year, reflect the ravages of rising unemployment and falling home prices that have sent loan defaults soaring.
