The head of the US government’s bank insurance agency on Tuesday called for a temporary increase in the US$100,000 limit for insured bank deposits to help stabilize the fragile sector.
“Unfortunately, there is an increasing crisis of confidence that is feeding unnecessary fear in the marketplace,” Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chairman Sheila Bair said.
“To address this crisis of confidence, I do believe that it would be helpful for the FDIC to have the temporary ability to raise deposit insurance limits,” Bair said.
“This would provide the dual benefits of providing additional liquidity to banks for lending as well as provide some additional reassurance to depositors above the current limits,” she said.
Some analysts fear the limit of US$100,000 for insured deposits might prompt a run by some businesses or institutional investors that might destabilize troubled banks.
The government recently offered insurance for money market funds without a limit, which could also lead to funds flowing out of banks and into those vehicles.
Bair said that “a temporary broadening of the FDIC’s guarantee will provide some additional needed confidence to the marketplace.”
US presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama had also suggested boosting the limits.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
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