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On the background of trouble signs given through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s (FDIC) seizure of California's IndyMac Bancorp Friday, the FDIC said Tuesday that the United States’ banking systems and the Americans’ insured deposits are “absolutely safe.”
The statement which reassured Americans of the bank system’s safety was made by FDIC chairwoman Sheila Bair in an interview on CBS' "The Early Show."
"The banking system as a whole is absolutely safe," she said.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, a U.S. government corporation created by the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, insures bank deposits of up to $100,000 and up to $250,000 for funds in retirement accounts such as an IRA.
The message Sheila Bair tried to deliver through her statement was that, although there will likely be more bank closings, it won’t be a trend. IndyMac Bank closed last week becoming the largest regulated thrift to fail.
"There are 8,500 banks. This is one," said Bair, who did not denied that banks are in fact having some challenges to overcome, but "no insured depositor has ever lost a penny of insured deposits throughout the FDIC's 75-year history."
The shockwaves triggered by FDIC’s seizure of IndyMac Bancorp caused Wachovia’s shares to drop nearly 12 percent Tuesday. In midmorning trading, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 140.20 points to 10,914.99, down 1.27 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 index decreased 17.11 points to 1,211.19, down 1.39 percent, while Nasdaq fell 1.11 percent to 2,188.32, down 24.55 points.
The dollar also dropped, while the euro traded at $1.5967 from Monday's $1.5911. The dollar traded at 104.72 yen from Monday's 106.11 yen.
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