People these days tend to think the worst is over for the banking industry, but that may hold true only for the biggest banks. The rest of the industry seems much more vulnerable--and that's tasking the FDIC like never before. The FDIC has at least 416 banks on the troubled bank list. That's 111 more than last quarter. The number of failures is bound to rise.

The problem is that bailouts cost money. The FDIC's deposit insurance fund has fallen 20 percent to $10.4 billion--its lowest level in nearly 16 years, reports the New York Times. The FDIC has already hiked fees on banks--prompting some to go public with their complaints--and now it is apparently considering a special assessment. It also hopes to recover funds via asset sales. It does have an emergency credit line but that doesn't seem like an option right now.

For more:
- here's the article

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