Summary Box: FDIC weighs steps, including loans from banks, to shore up insurance fund

Summary Box: FDIC weighs steps to shore up fund

THE PROBLEM: The fund to insure deposits has been depleted by bank failures since the financial crisis struck.

THE OPTIONS: Regulators could borrow billions from healthy banks, levy an extra fee on the industry, borrow from Treasury or collect banks’ insurance premiums early.

THE DOWNSIDES: Borrowing from banks would take those dollars out of the private sector, making them unavailable for investment. A new fee could force the failures of banks that are already struggling. Borrowing from Treasury would increase banks’ costs in the long term and look like another bailout. And collecting premiums early wouldn’t solve the insurance fund’s long-term problems.