Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation

The FDIC reported that insured commercial banks earned record annual profits for 1997, reaching $59.2 billion, up $6.8 billion from 1996 results. Strong growth in loans and other interest-earning assets was responsible for the earnings rise. In 1998, bank earnings set a new record for the seventh consecutive year at $61.9 billion (Click here).

April 4

FDIC Board member Eugene A. Ludwig’s tenure on the Board ended with the expiration of his five-year term as Comptroller of the Currency. On December 8, John D. Hawke, Jr., was sworn in as the 28th Comptroller of the Currency, filling the FDIC Board seat vacated by Mr. Ludwig. In the interim, Julie L. Williams, as Acting Comptroller, served on the FDIC Board (Click here).

April 9

Omnibank, River Rouge, Michigan, was the first FDIC-insured bank to fail since November 1997. Two more banks failed during 1998. All three banks were insured by the Bank Insurance Fund (Click here).

April 28

The FDIC Board voted to simplify the deposit insurance rules, making them easier to understand and less burdensome without reducing the consumer protections or safety–and–soundness standards for institutions (Click here and click here).

April 29

At a two-day symposium, "Managing the Crisis: The FDIC and RTC Experience," current and former FDIC and Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) executives discussed the strategies they used to resolve troubled banks and thrifts during the financial crisis of the 1980s and ‘90s. Between 1980 and 1994, a total of 1,617 banks and 1,295 thrifts failed (Click here).

A new Internet service was launched giving the public quick and easy access to Community Reinvestment Act evaluations for banks and thrifts supervised by the FDIC. The FDIC’s ratings and evaluations can be accessed from the agency’s Web site (Click here).

May 26

Donna Tanoue was sworn in as the 17th Chairman of the FDIC. Andrew C. Hove, Jr., who had served as Acting Chairman since June 1997, resumed his position as the agency’s Vice Chairman (Click here).

May 31

FDIC examiners had completed at least one on-site review at each institution the FDIC regulates to assess efforts to address Year 2000 issues. At year-end 1998, 97 percent of the institutions
were making satisfactory progress toward achieving Year 2000 readiness (Click here and click here).

June 18

The FDIC announced its "Suspicious Internet Banking" Web site designed to help detect potentially fraudulent Internet banking activity. The site provides the public and the industry with a "user-friendly" vehicle for reporting entities on the Internet that may be misrepresenting themselves as legitimately chartered or federally insured depository institutions (Click here and click here).

July 7

The FDIC Board voted to expedite the processing of applications filed by well-managed, well-capitalized institutions. More than 90 percent of all FDIC-supervised banks meet the eligibility standards (Click here and click here).

August 17

With the rapid growth of electronic commerce and the increased collection of consumers’ personal information over the Internet, the FDIC alerted bankers to the issue of online privacy. The FDIC encouraged institutions to maintain an awareness of consumers’ online privacy concerns, while taking
voluntary, specific actions to address them (Click here).

September 9

Top government officials from 62 countries, including the leaders of deposit insurance agencies in more than 20 nations, met in Washington, DC, for a three-day FDIC-sponsored conference to discuss the role of deposit insurance in sustaining public confidence in the world’s banking systems (Click here, click here and click here).

September 28

The FDIC unveiled a new Internet service allowing the public easy access to a listing of banks’ pending applications that are subject to public comment (Click here).

September 30

Joseph H. Neely resigned as a member of the FDIC’s Board of Directors. He had served since January 29, 1996.

A "user-friendly" electronic deposit insurance estimator called "EDIE" became available on the FDIC’s Web site. The service enables consumers and financial institution employees to quickly check whether a depositor with multiple accounts at the same institution has exceeded the $100,000 statutory limit for deposit insurance coverage (Click here, click here and click here).

December 18