At the recent G-20 meetings the leaders of the world’s largest economies voted to approve a plan that will put depositor’s funds front and center to bail out banks during the next crisis. The Financial Stability Board drew up a resolution along the lines of Cyprus’s bail-in approach that uses depositor’s money to bail-out banks. Its called the “Adequacy of Loss-Absorbing Capacity of Global Systemically Important Banks.” It is basically an admission that the onerous Dodd-Frank regulations are entirely inadequate. It potentially threatens your bank deposits and even pension funds.
Ellen Brown explains:
“Bail in” has been sold as avoiding future government bailouts and eliminating too big to fail (TBTF). But it actually institutionalizes TBTF, since the big banks are kept in business by expropriating the funds of their creditors.
It is a neat solution for bankers and politicians, who don’t want to have to deal with another messy banking crisis and are happy to see it disposed of by statute. But a bail-in could have worse consequences than a bailout for the public. If your taxes go up, you will probably still be able to pay the bills. If your bank account or pension gets wiped out, you could wind up in the street or sharing food with your pets.
In theory, US deposits under $250,000 are protected by federal deposit insurance; but deposit insurance funds in both the US and Europe are woefully underfunded, particularly when derivative claims are factored in.
