The decline of private deposit insurance in the United States

Since the early 1980s, the number of private deposit insurance corporations operating in the United States has declined sharply, and many private insurers have failed. The failures were caused both by poor design, and by inadequate regulation of member institutions. The poor regulation was not primarily the result of inadequate examinations of members, but was instead the result of inaction on the part of the insurers and state regulators. The recent private deposit insurance failures are similar in many respects to those of two earlier groups of private deposit insurers.