Here’s a government-shutdown story that’s good news.
The combined staffing of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Resolution Trust Corp. is slated to decline 20 percent next year, as more than 2,400 positions at the banking agencies are eliminated, the FDIC said Tuesday.
The cuts come as the level of bank failures has declined dramatically, dropping to six so far this year from 207 in 1989. Assets being sold by the FDIC have fallen to less than $12 billion this year from $28 billion at the end of 1993.
The RTC, formed in 1989 to sell the assets of failed savings and loans, will shut its doors at the end of this month. The RTC’s residual workload and some of its employees will be transferred to the FDIC, which insures deposits at commercial banks and thrifts.
The FDIC’s 1996 budget calls for the agency to have about 7,700 employees doing FDIC-only work at the end of next year, a 51 percent drop from the agency’s peak of about 15,600 employees in mid-1993.
The combined FDIC and RTC is slated to have about 9,700 employees at the end of 1996, down from a combined 12,100 currently. The FDIC’s operational spending is expected to rise to $1.84 billion next year from $1.37 billion this year because of the work being transferred from the RTC.
