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Comment by zdragnar | Hacker News Reader

At least in the US most banks are FDIC insured so your first $250k or so in deposits are secured by the government.

There's no real risk involved.

Incorrect-ish. 12 U.S.C. § 1821(f)(1) states that payment shall be made by the FDIC "as soon as possible," but as my sister-the-lawyer has always been at pains to point out to me, the most up-to-date specific language is from 2016's 81 Federal Register 87734, 87735, section B, which explicitly states that they "[do] not specify a time period for paying insured depositors." In other words, if it's a tiny bank failure you might get lucky and get made whole in a few business days, but if it's something larger, they can choose to meet their regulatory obligations over the course of decades - which is very much real risk.

I mean, I get it, but that would destroy any credibility of the insurance, and would undermine the whole point of the system.

I trust the FDIC to be far more johnny on the spot to resolve a liquidity issue than I do any private entity

Most banks also don't have cash on hand if you want to go in and walk back out the door with a large life savings. The fact that large sums are not instantly liquid isn't especially worrysome.

It'll be a hardship if a bank does liquidate and the FDIC takes some time to reimburse everyone involved, but that's better than not getting anything at all.

The existence of the FDIC is in itself, the proof there is risk involved :-)

As of June 2026, the FDIC had approximately $161 billion in its insurance fund against...drum roll... $10.8 trillion in insured deposits.

Good luck calling on your insurance on a systemic bank crisis....

Even when the current funds available are insufficient, it can borrow from the federal government or issue debt to cover the insured deposits.

A situation which calls that borrowing capability into question would mean the economy is so bad the dollar is worthless.

This particular insurer is unlike others because it can ultimately edit entries in a database whenever it wants. As long as you are part of the group that is considered worth editing the database for, such as a depositor at one of the too-big-to-fail banks, then you have nothing to worry about.

> At least in the US most banks are FDIC insured so your first $250k

More if you're in Silicon Valley… semi-/s

Ehhhh, I'll take a law over begging and praying.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse_of_Silicon_Valley_Ban...

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