FDIC Board Approves One-Time Assessment Credit

The FDIC board of directors has approved a regulation to implement a one-time credit of $4.7 billion to banks and thrifts that was required under the Deposit Insurance Reform Act of 2005. The credit will be used to offset future assessments charged by the FDIC.

Under the regulation, any institution or successor that was in existence prior to December 31, 1996, and paid insurance assessments before that date, will be eligible for a credit. (A successor is an institution resulting from a merger, consolidation, or the acquisition of 90% of an institution's assets and deposit liabilities.)

"There is seldom an option where everybody is happy, but in the end, the FDIC sought to …