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- #help.tut EXTRA HELP FOR TUTORIALS
- #define.stb ON LINE LEGAL GLOSSARY
- /* This is part 1 of the official text of the Federal Deposit Insurance
- Corporation's informational booklet on Federal Deposit Insurance.
- With banks failing, we thought you'd like to know if you are in
- an insured account what your rights are. */
-
- FOREWORD
-
- This booklet provides examples of insurance coverage under
- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) regulations on
- certain accounts commonly held by depositors in insured banks.
-
- The FDIC is an independent agency of the U.S. Government. It was
- established by Congress in 1933 to insure bank deposits and
- thereby help maintain sound conditions in our banking system and
- protect the nation's money supply in case of bank failure. As a
- depositor in an FDlC-insured bank, you do not pay for deposit
- insurance protection. Your bank pays for the cost of the
- insurance through semiannual assessments based on its volume of
- deposits. The deposit insurance fund consists of these
- assessments and income from investment of the fund's balances.
-
- FDIC OPERATION
-
- 1. Are all financial institutions insured by the FDlC?
-
- The FDlC insures deposits in national and most State banks,
- including commercial, savings and mutual savings banks. Deposits
- in some U.S. branches of foreign banks also are insured. insured
- banks are required to display the official FDlC sign, which
- appears on the last page of this booklet, at each teller's window
- or station. Most savings and loan associations are insured by the
- Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation, another
- governmental agency. Insurance for savings in most credit unions
- is provided by the National Credit Union Administration.
-
- 2. How does the FDlC protect bank depositors against loss?
-
- Each bank approved for deposit insurance must meet high standards
- of safety and soundness in its banking practices. Adherence to
- these standards is determined through regular bank examinations
- by Federal or State agencies. If, despite these precautions, an
- insured bank gets into financial difficulties and must be closed
- for purposes of liquidation, the FDlC is on hand promptly with
- cash to protect insured depositors. The Corporation usually
- begins payments to depositors within a few days after the date
- of an insured bank's closing.
-
-
- 3. Does the insurance protection afforded by the Corporation
- cover losses sustained by depositors in any fashion other than
- through the closing of an insured bank?
-
- No.
-
- 4. What types of deposits are insured?
-
- All types of deposits received by a bank in its usual course of
- business are insured, including savings deposits, checking
- deposits, deposits in NOW accounts, Christmas savings and other
- open-account time deposits, time certificates of deposit, and
- uninvested funds. Certified checks, cashiers' checks, officers'
- checks, money orders, drafts, letters of credit and travelers'
- checks for which an insured bank is primarily liable also are
- insured when issued in exchange for money or its equivalent or
- for a charge against a deposit account.
-
- 5. Does Federal deposit insurance protect the interests of
- creditors or shareholders of a failed bank?
-
- No. Insurance protects only deposits, as described in response to
- Question 4.
-
- ACCOUNTS OF A SINGLE HOLDER
-
- 6. What is the basic insurance protectIon afforded a depositor?
-
- The basic insured amount for a depositor is $100,000. In
- determining the amount of an insured account, accrued or
- anticipated interest or earnings is included. Deposits maintained
- in different rights or capacities are each separately insured to
- $100,000. Thus, a person may hold an interest in more than one
- separately insured account in the same insured bank.
-
- 7. Is the insurance protection increased by placing one's funds
- in two or more of the types deposit accounts, mentioned in
- Question 4, in the same bank?
-
- No. Deposit insurance is not increased merely by dividing funds
- owned in the same right and capacity among the types of deposits
- mentioned in Question 4. For example, checking and savings
- accounts owned by the same depositor are added together and
- insured up to $100,000.
-
- 8. If a depositor has deposit accounts in several different
- insured banks, will the deposits be added together for the
- purpose of determining insurance coverage?
-
- No. The maximum insurance of $100,000 is applicable to each
- insured depositor of each insured bank, without regard to the
- deposits in any other insured bank. In the case of a bank having
- one or more branches, the main office and all branch offices are
- considered as one bank.
-
- JOINT ACCOUNTS
-
- 9. If a husband and wife, or any two or more other persons, have,
- in addition to the individually owned accounts of each, a valid
- joint account in the same insured bank, is each account
- separately insured?
-
- Yes. If each of the co-owners has personally signed a valid
- account signature card and has a right of withdrawal on the same
- basis as the other co-owners, the joint account and each of the
- individually owned accounts are separately insured up to the
- $100,000 maximum. (The execution of an account signature card is
- not required for time certificates of deposit or any other
- deposit obligation evidenced by a negotiable instrument, but the
- deposit must in fact be jointly owned.) However, the insurance
- protection on joint accounts is not increased by rearranging the
- names of the owners, changing the style of the names, or by
- establishing more than one joint account for the same combination
- of owners in the same insured bank. No joint account shall in any
- case be entitled to insurance coverage in excess of $100,000.
-
- 10. What types of joint accounts may be insured?
-
- Insurance covers joint accounts owned in any manner conforming to
- applicable State law,such as joint tenants with a right of
- survivorship, tenants by the entireties, tenants in common, or a
- deposit owned by a husband and wife as community property in
- States recognizing this particular form of joint ownership.
-
- 11. Is the answer to question 10 the same if funds in the
- individual and joint accounts of husband and wife all consist of
- community property?
-
- Yes. In those jurisdictions recognizing community property,
- community funds may be maintained in accounts in the individual
- names of each spouse and in a joint account in the names of both
- and each account is separately insured to $100,000.