On November 9, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation approved two proposed rules that would amend the deposit insurance assessment regulations. The first would implement a provision in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that changes the assessment base from one based on domestic deposits (as it has been since 1935) to one based on assets. The second proposal would re-propose changes for the deposit insurance assessment system for large institutions ($10 billion and higher) given Dodd-Frank’s changes to the assessment base. This proposal replaces a proposed rule approved by the FDIC Board in April.

In accordance with a provision in Dodd-Frank, the FDIC is proposing to change the assessment base from adjusted domestic deposits to average consolidated total assets minus average tangible equity. Since the new base would be much larger than the current base, the FDIC is also proposing to lower assessment rates, which achieves the FDIC’s goal of not significantly altering the total amount of revenue collected from the industry.