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Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation

Each depositor insured to at least $250,000 per insured bank



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2007 Annual Report Highlights

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I. Management's Discussion and Analysis

 

The Year in Review

In 2007, the FDIC continued its work on high-profile policy issues, ranging from implementation of deposit insurance reform to finalizing capital reform. In addressing these and other issues, the Corporation published numerous Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRs) throughout the year, seeking comment from the public. The Corporation also continued to focus on a strong supervisory program and reorganized examination teams that inspected financial institutions that originate significant volumes of subprime loans and nontraditional loan products. The FDIC continued expansion of financial education programs, providing Money Smart training to hundreds of public school teachers. It also sponsored and co-sponsored major conferences and participated in local and global outreach initiatives.

Highlighted in this section are the Corporation’s 2007 accomplishments in each of its three major business lines – Insurance, Supervision and Consumer Protection, and Receivership Management – as well as its program support areas.

 

Insurance

The FDIC insures bank and savings association deposits. As insurer, the FDIC must continually evaluate and effectively manage how changes in the economy, the financial markets and the banking system affect the adequacy and the viability of the Deposit Insurance Fund.

Implementation of Deposit Insurance Reform

On November 2, 2006, the FDIC Board of Directors adopted a final rule on assessments as part of the implementation of the Federal Deposit Insurance Reform Act of 2005 (Reform Act). The new rule enables the FDIC to more closely tie each bank’s assessments to the risk that it poses to the Deposit Insurance Fund.

Effective January 1, 2007, assessment rates ranged from 5 to 7 basis points for Risk Category I institutions, 10 basis points for Risk Category II institutions, 28 basis points for Risk Category III institutions and 43 basis points for Risk Category IV institutions. These rates are uniformly 3 basis points greater than the base assessment rates also adopted by the Board in November 2006. The Board retains the flexibility to adjust rates without further notice-and-comment rulemaking, provided that no such adjustment can be greater than 3 basis points in any quarter; that these adjustments cannot result in rates more than 3 basis points above or below the base rates; and that rates cannot be negative. The table on the following page shows the distribution of institutions among the risk categories as well as within Risk Category I.

Distribution of Institutions and Assessment Base Among Risk Categories
Quarter Ending September 30, 2007

(Dollars in billions)
Risk Category Annual Rate in Basis Points Number of Institutions Percent of Total Institutions Assessment base Percent of Total Assessment Base
I - Minimum 5 2,709 32% $3,872 56%
I - Middle 5.01 - 6.00 3,088 36% 2,078 30%
I - Middle 6.01 - 6.99 1,422 17% 456 7%
I - Maximum 7 859 10% 296 4%
II 10 422 5% 163 2%
III 28 64 1% 14 0%
IV 43 7 0% 1 0%
Total   8,571 100% $6,880 100%
Note: Institutions are categorized based on supervisory ratings, debt ratings and financial data as of September 30, 2007. Rates do not reflect the application of assessment credits. Percentages may not add to 100 percent due to rounding.

Institutions that contributed to the build-up of the insurance funds through 1996 received an aggregate $4.7 billion in one-time credits under the Reform Act to offset future deposit insurance assessments. These credits were allocated to institutions based on their 1996 assessment base shares.

The average annualized assessment rate (weighted by each institution’s assessment base), before accounting for the use of credits, was approximately 5.4 basis points for the first three quarters of 2007. Approximately 68 percent of all institutions (71 percent of institutions in Risk Category I) were able to offset their first, second, and third quarter 2007 assessments entirely using credits.

In September 2007, the FDIC issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR), seeking comments on alternative methods for allocating dividends as part of a permanent final rule to implement the dividend requirements of the Reform Act. In October 2006, the Board adopted a temporary rule governing dividends, which expires at the end of 2008. The comment period for the Dividend ANPR closed on November 19, 2007.

International Capital Standards

Ensuring the adequacy of insured institutions’ capital under Basel II remained a key objective for the FDIC. In 2007, the FDIC devoted substantial resources to domestic and international efforts to ensure these new rules are designed and implemented appropriately. These efforts, in conjunction with other federal financial regulators, included publishing a final rule for the implementation of the advanced approaches of Basel II as well as proposed examination guidance. This guidance is intended to provide the industry with regulatory perspectives for implementation. In concert with regulators from other U.S. banking agencies and other Basel Committee member countries, the FDIC also participated in a review of supervisory and regulatory supplemental capital measures currently being used to ensure bank capital adequacy.

The Basel II Final Rule was published in the Federal Register on December 7, 2007, with an effective date of April 1, 2008. The findings of the fourth quantitative impact study (QIS-4), which were completed in 2005, suggested that, without modification, the Basel II framework could result in an unacceptable decline in minimum risk-based capital requirements. As a result, the agencies have included safeguards against the possibility that the new rules do not work as intended. Through its supervisory program, the FDIC continues to work with certain insured state non-member bank subsidiaries of banking organizations that plan to operate under the new capital accord, to review and assess implementation plans and progress towards meeting qualification requirements.

Domestic Capital Standards

The FDIC is involved in efforts to revise the existing risk-based capital standards for banks that will not be subject to the advanced approaches of Basel II. As such, the FDIC has taken a lead role in developing a proposed rule that would implement the standardized approach of Basel II (Basel II Standardized NPR). The proposed rule is intended to modernize the risk-based capital rules for banks that do not use the advanced approaches of Basel II, and minimize potential competitive inequities that may arise between banks that adopt Basel II and banks that remain under the existing rules. The agencies have indicated that they expect to issue the Basel II Standardized NPR during the first quarter of 2008.

Center for Financial Research

During 2007, the FDIC’s Center for Financial Research (CFR) co-sponsored two major research conferences: the 17th Annual Derivatives Securities and Risk Management Conference and the seventh Annual Bank Research Conference.

The 17th Annual Derivatives Securities and Risk Management Conference, which the FDIC co-sponsored with Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management and the University of Houston’s Bauer College of Business, was held in April 2007 at FDIC’s Virginia Square facility and attracted over 100 researchers from around the world.

The CFR and The Journal of Financial Services Research (JFSR) hosted the seventh Annual Bank Research Conference in September with over 100 attendees. The conference included the presentation of 12 papers, a nationally recognized guest speaker, Francis A. Longstaff – Allstate Professor of Insurance and Finance, Anderson School of Management, UCLA, an expert panel, and discussions on timely issues affecting the financial system.

The CFR also hosted the Basel Research Task Force Annual Workshop in May. Approximately 85 researchers and policy makers attended the workshop. Additionally, the FDIC along with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the University of Kansas School of Business, and The JFSR, co-sponsored the Mergers and Acquisitions of Financial Institutions Conference in November. Ten CFR working papers were published in 2007 on topics including risk measurement, exchange rate exposure, and financial institution credit and retail banking relationships.




Last Updated 06/25/2008 communications@fdic.gov

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