The FDIC is adding staff and planning to spend more next year.
The agency's board approved a beefed-up 2010 budget, with expectations that bank failures will continue to plague us. The FDIC handled 133 bank failures so far this year, after 25 of them in 2008.
Staff will increase from 7010 employees to 8653 - a healthy increase. According to a press release:
"Almost all the additional staff will be hired on a temporary basis. They will be hired primarily to assist with bank closings; to perform follow-on work related to the management and sale of failed bank assets; and to conduct bank examinations and perform other bank supervisory activities."
Look for more bank failures in 2010, and keep your deposits below FDIC insurance levels. If you're covered, a bank failure can be reduced to a non-event or a mild inconvenience.
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