[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 83 (Friday, May 28, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E980]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 INVESTOR DEPOSIT YARDSTICK (INDY) ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JANE HARMAN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 27, 2010

  Ms. HARMAN. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to introduce with Rep. David 
Dreier the bipartisan Investor Deposit Yardstick (INDY) Act.
  On July 11, 2008, 6,500 depositors in IndyMac bank woke up to find 
huge chunks of their life savings had vanished. IndyMac collapsed, and 
with it went $233 million in deposited funds.
  These small business owners, retirees and working families were not 
speculating wildly on the stock market--they were saving money in a 
bank they thought was secure.
  Three months later, as the economy cratered, the federal government 
rode to the rescue of customers of other failing banks. In October 
2008, the government raised the FDIC insurance limit from $100,000 to 
$250,000.
  But it came too late for IndyMac customers, and for customers of five 
other banks across the country that were taken over by the FDIC. The 
new limits applied only prospectively to banks that would fail, not 
retroactively to those that already had.
  IndyMac was the largest savings and loan in the Los Angeles area and 
its downfall hit California especially hard. Imagine your child's 
education fund practically wiped out overnight. Imagine your retirement 
nest egg decimated. And when you go to claim your FDIC insurance 
coverage, you are told you can't recover up to $250,000 but your 
neighbor can.
  And many customers claim they were misled by IndyMac employees into 
believing their savings in excess of $100,000 were fully insured.
  I am pleased to have partnered with Chairman Frank and the FDIC to 
resolve this problem, as well as my co-author David Dreier, and I urge 
prompt passage of this legislation, which is fully paid for out of fees 
assessed on financial institutions.

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