FDIC Mulls Change on Setting Premiums

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair said the FDIC may shelve its use of rating agencies in setting insurance premiums for large banks.

At a Washington conference Wednesday, Bair also confirmed plans to securitize some failed-bank assets and touted proposed restrictions on private-sector securitizations.

Since 2007 the FDIC has used debt ratings along with other risk factors to calculate premiums for banks with assets of more than $10 billion that issue long-term debt.

But Bair said that could change amid scrutiny over how private rating agencies performed before the mortgage meltdown.

"I'm embarrassed to say our insurance assessments are in part based on long-term debt ratings, and so we are going to be dealing with that and replacing it with something, I think, where we'll be doing our own analysis," she said in a speech to the Commercial Mortgage Securities Association.

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Compliance Law and regulation
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