Since the enactment of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in 2010, the FDIC insures deposits in member banks up to $250,000 per ownership category.

[17] The FDIC also examines and supervises certain financial institutions for safety and soundness, performs certain consumer-protection functions, and manages receiverships of failed banks.

Non-US citizens are also covered by FDIC insurance as long as their deposits are in a domestic office of an FDIC-insured bank.

Some types of uninsured products, even if purchased through a covered financial institution, are:[21] Deposit accounts are insured only against the failure of a member bank.

The owner of a revocable trust account is generally insured up to $250,000 for each unique beneficiary (subject to special rules if there are more than five of them).

Instead it assesses premiums on each member and accumulates them in a Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) that it uses to pay its operating costs and the depositors of failed banks.

The amount of each bank's premiums is based on its balance of insured deposits and the degree of risk that it poses to the FDIC.

On these occasions it has met insurance obligations directly from operating cash, or by borrowing through the Federal Financing Bank.

The existence of two separate funds for the same purpose led banks to shift business from one to the other, depending on the benefits each could provide.

[28] Then-Chair of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan was a critic of the system, saying, "We are, in effect, attempting to use government to enforce two different prices for the same item – namely, government-mandated deposit insurance.

[29] In February 2006, President George W. Bush signed into law the Federal Deposit Insurance Reform Act of 2005 (FDIRA).

In its role as a receiver the FDIC is tasked with protecting the depositors and maximizing the recoveries for the creditors of the failed institution.

The two most common ways for the FDIC to resolve a closed institution and fulfill its role as a receiver are: Originally the only resolution method was to establish a temporary deposit insurance national bank that assumed the failed bank's deposits on behalf of the FDIC.

[34] In 1991, to comply with legislation, the FDIC amended its failure resolution procedures to decrease the costs to the deposit insurance funds.

The procedures require the FDIC to choose the resolution alternative that is least costly to the deposit insurance fund of all possible methods for resolving the failed institution.

To assist the FDIC in resolving an insolvent bank, covered institutions are required to submit a resolution plan which can be activated if necessary.

In addition to the Bank Holding Company ("BHC") resolution plans required under the Dodd Frank Act under Section 165(d),[35] the FDIC requires a separate Covered Insured Depository Institution ("CIDI") resolution plan for US insured depositories with assets of $50 billion or more.

[36] On December 17, 2014, the FDIC issued guidance for the 2015 resolution plans of CIDIs of large bank holding companies (BHCs).

In 1893, William Jennings Bryan presented a bill to Congress proposing a national deposit insurance fund.

[43] The Federal Reserve Act initially included a provision for nationwide deposit insurance, but it was removed from the bill by the House of Representatives.

Congress approved a temporary increase in the deposit insurance limit from $100,000 to $250,000, which was effective from October 3, 2008, through December 31, 2010.

The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (P.L.111-203), which was signed into law on July 21, 2010, made the $250,000 insurance limit permanent,[49] and extended the guarantee retroactively to January 1, 2008, meaning it covered uninsured deposits banks like IndyMac.

In addition, the Federal Deposit Insurance Reform Act of 2005 (P.L.109-171) allows for the boards of the FDIC and the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) to consider inflation and other factors every five years beginning in 2010 and, if warranted, to adjust the amounts under a specified formula.

[52] As part of a 1987 legislative enactment, Congress passed a measure stating "it is the sense of the Congress that it should reaffirm that deposits up to the statutorily prescribed amount in federally insured depository institutions are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States",[53] and similar language is used in 12 U.S.C.

The final combined total for all direct and indirect losses of FSLIC and RTC resolutions was an estimated $152.9 billion.

At the height of the crisis in late 2008, Treasury secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve officials Ben Bernanke and Timothy Geithner proposed that the FDIC should guarantee debts across the US financial sector, including investment banks.

[61] Rather than borrowing from the FFB or the Treasury, the FDIC demanded three years of advance premiums from its member institutions and operated the fund with a negative net balance.

The Dodd–Frank Act of 2010 created new authorities for the FDIC to address risks associated with systemically important financial institutions.

These institutions were required to submit resolution plans, or "living wills," which the FDIC would execute in the event of their failure.