Comment by zdragnar

1 day ago

At least in the US most banks are FDIC insured so your first $250k or so in deposits are secured by the government.

There's no real risk involved.

9 comments

zdragnar

Reply
drknownuffin  1 day ago

Incorrect-ish. 12 U.S.C. § 1821(f)(1) states that payment shall be made by the FDIC "as soon as possible," but as my sister-the-lawyer has always been at pains to point out to me, the most up-to-date specific language is from 2016's 81 Federal Register 87734, 87735, section B, which explicitly states that they "[do] not specify a time period for paying insured depositors." In other words, if it's a tiny bank failure you might get lucky and get made whole in a few business days, but if it's something larger, they can choose to meet their regulatory obligations over the course of decades - which is very much real risk.

  • zdragnar  20 hours ago

    Most banks also don't have cash on hand if you want to go in and walk back out the door with a large life savings. The fact that large sums are not instantly liquid isn't especially worrysome.

    It'll be a hardship if a bank does liquidate and the FDIC takes some time to reimburse everyone involved, but that's better than not getting anything at all.

  • wing-_-nuts  1 day ago

    I mean, I get it, but that would destroy any credibility of the insurance, and would undermine the whole point of the system.

    I trust the FDIC to be far more johnny on the spot to resolve a liquidity issue than I do any private entity

Betelbuddy  1 day ago

The existence of the FDIC is in itself, the proof there is risk involved :-)

As of June 2026, the FDIC had approximately $161 billion in its insurance fund against...drum roll... $10.8 trillion in insured deposits.

Good luck calling on your insurance on a systemic bank crisis....

  • zdragnar  1 day ago

    Even when the current funds available are insufficient, it can borrow from the federal government or issue debt to cover the insured deposits.

    A situation which calls that borrowing capability into question would mean the economy is so bad the dollar is worthless.

  • lotsofpulp  1 day ago

    This particular insurer is unlike others because it can ultimately edit entries in a database whenever it wants. As long as you are part of the group that is considered worth editing the database for, such as a depositor at one of the too-big-to-fail banks, then you have nothing to worry about.