The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank reminded investors and banking customers about what’s insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and what’s not in extraordinary situations like this.
In the case of SVB, the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department, working in concert with the FDIC, moved to cover all depositors above the standard threshold.
However, this is not the norm. FOX Business explains what you need to know about your money.
The mission of the FDIC is to maintain public confidence and maintain stability in the U.S. financial system. The FDIC safeguards in many ways: it insures deposits, supervises financial institutions for soundness and consumer protection, make financial institutions resolvable, plus it manages receiverships.
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The FDIC was created in 1933 as a response to bank failures that occurred in the 1920s and early 1930s during the Great Depression.
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FDIC deposit insurance protects depositors up to $250,000 per institution, and possibly more under circumstances. After the collapse of SVB, which roiled the regional banking sector, some lawmakers are calling upon the FDIC to raise these limits permanently.
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The following are examples of deposit products that are insured by the FDIC:
It’s important to know that the amount of FDIC insurance coverage you may be entitled to depends on the FDIC ownership category. This generally means the manner in which you hold your funds at the bank.
According to Brian Sullivan, spokesperson with the FDIC, the four most common individual “ownership categories” that qualify for FDIC Deposit Insurance are:
And according to Sullivan, potentially, if you are a depositor with one of each of these ownership categories, you could be insured for more than $250K.
While the scope of the FDIC is expansive, there are some non-deposit investment products that are not insured by the FDIC, even if they were purchased from an insured bank. These include:
U.S. Treasury bills, bonds or notes, however, are backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.