FDIC considers borrowing cash from banks

Insurance fund that protects depositors is quickly running out of money

WASHINGTON - Tired of the government bailing out banks? Get ready for this: officials may soon ask banks to bail out the government.

Senior regulators say they are seriously considering a plan to have the nation’s healthy banks lend billions of dollars to rescue the insurance fund that protects bank depositors. That would enable the fund, which is rapidly running out of money because of a wave of bank failures, to continue to rescue the sickest banks.

The plan, strongly supported by bankers and their lobbyists, would be a major reversal of fortune.

By Stephen Labaton

FDIC's Sheila Bair speaks out Sept. 18: FDIC chair Sheila Bair tells a global finance conference that future regulations should support the system, not individual banks. CNBC