Current discussions about deposit insurance reform center on issues such as the size of insurance premiums, the size of the fund, and the size of the coverage limits-all issues that reflect a concern with how to allocate the losses arising from bank failures. The authors of this article argue...

A presentation of the case for adopting market-oriented reforms to our bank regulatory and federal deposit insurance systems.

This reprint of a 1993 article outlines what Congress intended the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act of 1991 to accomplish. A new preface discusses FDICIA's successes and failures as well as research calling for clearer policies to deal with the problem of "too big to fail"...

A study of the impact of capital requirements on bank portfolio decisions, showing that the variance of earnings and the incentive to increase leverage are reduced with risk- and leverage-related deposit rates, and that the impact of increased capital requirements on portfolio behavior is...

Under depositor-preference laws, depositors' claims on the assets of failed depository institutions are senior to unsecured general-creditor claims. As a result, depositor preference changes the capital structure of banks and thrifts, thereby affecting the cost of capital for depositories....

In the United States the risk that a financial breakdown could lead to a taxpayer bailout of the deposit insurance fund has been cited to justify current regulatory controls on what activities may be affiliated with banks. Despite some regulatory changes in the 1990s to protect taxpayers from...