Warren Says She Favors Increasing FDIC’s Deposit Insurance Cap

(Bloomberg) — Senator Elizabeth Warren said she favors lifting the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s standard $250,000 cap, possibly into the millions of dollars, after Silicon Valley Bank’s failure exposed risk at US regional banks.

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“I think that lifting the FDIC insurance cap is a good move,” Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts who’s a member of the Senate Banking Committee, said in a CBS News interview on Sunday. “Now the question is, where is the right number on lifting it.”

“This is a question we’ve got to work through. Is it 2 million, is it 5 million, is it 10 million?” she said on “Face the Nation.”

She declined to say whether President Joe Biden’s administration is actively seeking to build support in Congress for raising the FDIC’s ceiling on deposit insurance. “I don’t want to talk about private conversations but I will say it’s got to be one of the options that’s on the table right now,” Warren said.

Warren renewed her consistent criticism of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, blaming him for advocating a financial deregulation agenda.

Asked whether she has confidence in San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly after SVB tumbled into federal receivership, she said: “No, I do not,” while saying Powell and the Fed were “ultimately responsible.”

“We need accountability for our regulators, who clearly fell down on the job, and that starts with Jerome Powell,” Warren said.

She also called for accountability for bank executives, including clawbacks from former SVB Chief Executive Officer Gary Becker and lifetime financial industry bans for executives who were in charge at banks that failed.