The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Summary
Created when Congress passed the Banking Act of 1933, the FDIC ran on a $2,485,621,374 combined 2026 operating budget and 5,386 authorized staff -- about $7.27 per U.S. resident -- to insure deposits at 4,278 institutions holding $18.83 trillion, directly supervise 2,694 of them, and resolve bank failures as receiver.
The organization
Its mission
The calls itself an independent agency created by Congress to maintain stability and public confidence in the nation's financial system⧉.
Founded when, and why
Congress created it when President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Banking Act of 1933 on June 16, 1933⧉, amid a crisis that had shuttered roughly 4,000 banks that year. Federal deposit insurance took effect January 1, 1934, initially covering $2,500 per depositor⧉.
What it costs — money and people
The 's Board approved a $2,485,621,374 Ongoing Operations and Receivership Funding budget for calendar year 2026⧉ -- down $486.7 million (16.4 percent) from 2025 -- and authorized 5,386 full-time positions, a cut of 1,337 (19.9 percent) from 2025's 6,723⧉, after a 2025 workforce-optimization review eliminated 1,272 positions. Its Inspector General is separately appropriated by Congress at $47.375 million and 130 positions⧉, informational only. Against the Census Bureau's 341.8 million Vintage 2025 population estimate⧉, that budget is $7.27 per U.S. resident.
View data as table
| Salaries & Compensation | 1,497.4 |
|---|---|
| Outside Services - Personnel | 376.9 |
| Equipment | 177.5 |
| Buildings & Leased Space | 143.3 |
| Travel | 67.6 |
| Outside Services - Other | 12.4 |
| Other Expenses | 10.6 |
What it produces
As of March 31, 2026, the FDIC insured deposits at 4,278 institutions holding $18.828 trillion in domestic deposits and $26.145 trillion in assets⧉, directly supervising 2,694 of them -- mostly state-chartered banks outside the Fed. It becomes receiver when a bank fails: it closed Pulaski Savings Bank of Chicago (Jan. 17, 2025), The Santa Anna National Bank of Texas (Jun. 27, 2025), and one more bank in Q1 2026⧉. At quarter's end, 54 banks sat on its Problem Bank List⧉, and the Deposit Insurance Fund it manages held $157.4 billion, a 1.43 percent reserve ratio⧉.
Value to society, by the numbers
The mechanism is confidence: insured deposits give depositors no reason to run. More than 9,000 banks failed in the four years before federal deposit insurance began⧉; in 1934, insurance's first full year, only nine banks failed⧉. That gap is the 's own counterfactual: a depositor no longer needs to beat a rumor to the teller window, because the government has already promised to make the deposit whole, up to the insurance limit.
- The 's 2026 budget ($2.49B, 5,386 ) funds deposit insurance, bank supervision, and receivership readiness across 4,278 insured institutions holding $18.83 trillion in deposits -- $7.27 per U.S. resident, not a bill anyone is charged, since the funds itself from assessments on insured banks rather than taxes.
- The 2026 cut (-19.9% , -16.4% budget) followed a 2025 workforce-optimization review that eliminated 1,272 positions outright; examiner staffing fell more selectively -- risk examiners down 13.1% to 1,506, compliance examiners down 21.1% to 378 -- reflecting industry consolidation rather than an across-the-board reduction in bank oversight.
Your handles.* Check whether a bank is -insured and who regulates it through BankFind Suite. Calculate exactly how much of your deposits are covered with the Electronic Deposit Insurance Estimator (EDIE). File a complaint about an -supervised bank through the FDIC Information and Support Center.
Sources(8) ▾
- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Division of Research and Statistics, A Brief History of Deposit Insurance in the United States (1998-09) — The 's own official history of federal deposit insurance -- the exact date President Roosevelt signed the Banking Act of 1933 (cover caption), the January 1, 1934 effective date and initial $2,500 coverage limit, and the pre-/post-insurance bank-failure counts that this entry uses as the mechanism's counterfactual (Chapter 1, Introduction, p.1). Wayback's save-page-now endpoint could not be reached at read time (2026-07-16); the PDF was instead retrieved and read directly from fdic.gov, and every quoted figure below was matched verbatim against that direct copy. fdic.gov · original document
- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, About the FDIC (2026) — The 's own current self-description of its independent-agency status/mission and its five-person, Senate-confirmed Board of Directors. Wayback's save-page-now endpoint could not be reached at read time (2026-07-16); the page was instead retrieved and read directly from fdic.gov, and both quoted sentences below were matched verbatim against that direct copy. fdic.gov · original document
- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Statistics At A Glance -- Industry Trends, First Quarter 2026 (as of March 31, 2026) (2026-05-27) — The 's own quarterly industry table, 'All Insured Institutions' column, as of March 31, 2026 -- the most current count of -insured/-supervised institutions, total assets, and domestic deposits available at write time. Source for this entry's 'what does it do' workload figures. Wayback's save-page-now endpoint could not be reached at read time (2026-07-16); the PDF was instead retrieved and read directly from fdic.gov, and every quoted figure below was matched verbatim against that direct copy. fdic.gov · original document
- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, FDIC Quarterly Banking Profile, First Quarter 2026 (Deposit Insurance Fund and Problem Bank List figures) (2026-05-27) — The 's own Q1 2026 Quarterly Banking Profile summary -- the Deposit Insurance Fund balance and reserve ratio as of March 31, 2026, and the Problem Bank List count. Wayback's save-page-now endpoint could not be reached at read time (2026-07-16); the page was instead retrieved and read directly from fdic.gov, and every quoted figure below was matched verbatim against that direct copy. fdic.gov · original document
- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, BankFind Suite -- Failures dataset (bank failures, January 2024 through July 2026) (2026-07-16) — The 's own machine-readable failed-bank dataset (BankFind Suite API), queried live for every failure from January 1, 2024 through July 16, 2026 -- returns bank name, city/state, and failure date per record. Source for the specific bank-failure examples in 'what does it do.' A dynamic API query rather than a static document; the human-readable equivalent is https://www.fdic.gov/bank-failures/failed-bank-list. Wayback cannot capture a parameterized API query; archiveUrl is null by the nature of the source, not an outage. api.fdic.gov · original document
- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (E. Marshall Gentry, Deputy to the Chairman and Chief Financial Officer), Board Memo -- Proposed 2026 FDIC Operating Budget (2025-12-12) — The 's own memo to the Board of Directors requesting approval of the 2026 Operating Budget -- Table 1 (Proposed 2026 Operating Budget and Staffing Authorization: Ongoing Operations, Receivership Funding, and , 2025 vs. 2026), Table 2 (2026 Ongoing Operations budget by major expense category), and the workforce-optimization narrative (1,272 positions eliminated in 2025). The Board approved this budget as proposed on December 16, 2025 (see doc-fdic-2026budget-pr). Source for every budget and figure in this entry and for the expense-category chart. Wayback's save-page-now endpoint could not be reached at read time (2026-07-16); the PDF was instead retrieved and read directly from fdic.gov, and every quoted/tabulated figure below was matched verbatim against that direct copy. fdic.gov · original document
- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, FDIC Board Approves 2026 Operating Budget (2025-12-16) — The 's own press release confirming the Board of Directors approved the 2026 Operating Budget as proposed on December 16, 2025 -- dates the Board Memo's figures as final, board-approved numbers rather than a mere proposal. Wayback's save-page-now endpoint could not be reached at read time (2026-07-16); the page was instead retrieved and read directly from fdic.gov. fdic.gov · original document
- U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Population Growth Slows Due to Historic Decline in Net International Migration (Vintage 2025 national population estimates) (2026-01-27) — Census Bureau's own Vintage 2025 national population estimate (341.8 million as of July 1, 2025) -- the per-resident denominator for this entry's cost-per-person KPI. Wayback's save-page-now endpoint could not be reached at read time (2026-07-16); the page was instead retrieved and read directly from census.gov. census.gov · original document
Comments
Always open. Logged-in readers can annotate paragraphs in place.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is the independent federal agency that insures bank deposits, supervises banks, and resolves failed banks as receiver, run by a five-member Board of Directors appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate⧉.