February 28, 2009

The banking industry faces a $27 billion assessment this year to replenish the federal insurance fund that protects most bank deposits, further reducing the money available to support new lending.The board of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. voted yesterday to collect $12 billion in quarterly fees, and gave preliminary approval to a special assessment of about $15 billion.

The combined total is a ninefold increase over last year.Agency officials said the insurance fund would be depleted by the end of the year without the increase, because of the rising pace of bank failures. The FDIC pays up to $250,000 to most account-holders to replace whatever money does not remain in the vaults of failed banks.