Great news: Increase in FDIC insurance is retroactive to January 1, 2008

In addition to permanently raising the FDIC insurance limit $250,000 from $100,000, the financial reform legislation today makes that higher limit retroactive to all of 2008. The FDIC will mail checks to people whose banks failed during the first nine months of 2008 but had deposit balances between $100,000 and $250,000. From the FDIC press release:

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act signed into law by President Barack Obama today permanently raised the maximum deposit insurance amount to $250,000. In addition, the Act made this increase retroactive to January 1, 2008.

The provision making the law retroactive means that the $250,000 deposit insurance amount applies to banks that failed between January 1 and October 3, 2008. These insured institutions are:

• Hume Bank, Hume, MO
• ANB Financial, N.A., Bentonville, AR
• IndyMac Bank, F.S.B., Pasadena, CA
• First Priority Bank, Bradenton, FL
• The Columbian Bank and Trust Company, Topeka, KS
• Silver State Bank, Henderson, NV

This retroactive increase has reduced the number of uninsured depositors at these failed institutions from more than 10,000 to approximately 500.

The FDIC will mail checks to uninsured depositors tomorrow, July 22, 2010..

That is real, cold hard cash relief to 9,500 Americans and their families.

October 3, 2008 is the date that the limit was temporarily raised from $100,000 to $250,000.

-- Jack Krupansky