Clyburn: ‘We’re Going to Increase’ Amount of Bank Deposits Protected by FDIC Above $250K

On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Your World,” Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) stated that “We’re going to increase” the amount of bank deposits protected by the FDIC above the maximum of $250,000.

Clyburn stated, “I do believe things have stabilized thanks to the quick action of the Biden administration to step in, to protect — not just the banks — but to protect the depositors. And that’s the way it ought to be done. The last time we were here back in…September 2008, when we had a situation like this, things went awry and Congress stepped in. But we stepped in basically to bail out the banks. This administration is not bailing out anybody. What they’re doing and the way they’re doing it is to protect everybody.”

Host Neil Cavuto then cut in to ask, “Yeah, but they are bailing out people, right, Congressman? They’re bailing out people with [the] FDIC backing limitless, in other words, not just $250,000 for individuals, a half-a-million for couples, but setting a precedent here that calls for protecting investors out fully — or depositors out fully. And I’m just wondering if you had to play that out, with more banks that could go belly up, that could get very, very expensive.”

Clyburn responded, “Well, it could. But remember now, this is not — it’s not what I call a bailout. A bailout is when Congress gets together as we did back in 2008, appropriate[s] billions of dollars, and bail[s] the banks out. What’s happening here is the process that was put in place with the FDIC, they’re there in order to protect the banks and those depositors are being protected. I don’t think you can really call that a bailout.”

Cavuto then cut in to ask, “Do you think the precedent established here then, Congressman, protecting them out way beyond the normal statutory limits of 250,000, if played out again and again, that this should be the new standard by which we address these, if they pop up in the future?”

Clyburn answered, “Well, I don’t know that this is a new standard. We’re going to increase that. The 250,000 per depositor now, I remember when it was only 50,000 per depositor. And you increased that based upon the times within which we live.”

Cavuto then cut in to ask if the move wouldn’t have been made if SVB wasn’t a “Democratic-friendly” bank. Clyburn responded that the move had nothing to do with politics.

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