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.
MUSICAL INTERLUDE: During the altercations, KMT Legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin at one point pulled out a flute and started to play the national anthem A massive brawl erupted between governing and opposition lawmakers in the main chamber of the legislature in Taipei yesterday over legislative reforms. President-elect William Lai (賴清德) is to be inaugurated on Monday, but his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lost its majority in the legislature and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has been working with the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) to promote their mutual ideas. The opposition parties said the legislative reforms would enable better oversight of the Executive Yuan, including a proposal to criminalize officials who are deemed to make false statements in the legislature. “The DPP does not want this to be
NO QUESTIONS ASKED: The KMT and TPP used their majority to pass a second reading of a bill that would allow legislators to fine officials NT$200,000 for contempt Thousands of people yesterday gathered outside the Legislative Yuan calling for more transparency regarding legislative reform bills and demanding that proceedings that devolved into brawls on Friday last week be declared null and void. The demonstrators included members of civic groups and political parties such as the Taiwan Statebuilding Party, the New Power Party and the Green Party Taiwan. They decried what they called procedural issues concerning bills proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), adding that the bills should undergo committee reviews in line with standard legislative procedure. The protesters said the opposition parties were
A group of 30 foreign academics yesterday released a statement condemning legislative reforms proposed by opposition lawmakers, saying they are unconstitutional and undermine the objective of good governance. The statement publicized at a news conference in Taipei is cosigned by international academics, journalists and politicians, including former American Institute in Taiwan directors William Stanton and Stephen Young, and Formosan Association for Public Relations president Bob Yang (楊英育). The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) have put forward a set of legislative reforms that would introduce “contempt of legislature” charges, require the president to answer lawmakers’ questions and expand the
The UN has contradicted its charter and infringed on freedom of the press by asking two Taiwanese correspondents covering the World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva, Switzerland, to present a Chinese passport when applying for interview permits, the Association of Taiwan Journalists said yesterday. With the 77th WHA beginning on Saturday, the Central News Agency’s Brussels correspondent Tien Si-ru (田習如) and Paris correspondent Judy Tseng (曾婷瑄) followed the same procedures as they did last year to apply for interview permits at the UN office in Geneva, the association said. As the online application form does not list Taiwan or the