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Biden said U.S. banks are in "pretty" good shape, people's
savings were secure and he did not see an industry ready to
explode.
"If we find that there's more instability than appears, we'd be
in a position to have the FDIC use the power it has to guarantee
those (deposits) above $250,000 like they did already," he told
reporters at a news conference in the Canadian capital of
Ottawa.
Regional lenders in the United States are facing a crisis of
confidence after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and
Signature Bank this month. The turmoil has prompted
unprecedented moves by regulators to guarantee the deposits of
SVB and Signature.
In recent days, Biden, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and
other banking regulators have issued statements to reassure the
public that the U.S. banking system is safe.
Still, investors have dumped banking stocks globally over the
past two weeks, with rapid interest rate increases to rein in
inflation blamed by some as the root cause of the debacle.
After a volatile, week, the S&P Bank index ended modestly lower,
while the KBW Regional Bank index rose 2.9%.
Swiss-government brokered rescue deal for Credit Suisse has
further spooked investors.
Biden said it would take some time for the situation to calm
down but he said what happened with Credit Suisse in Europe was
of no consequence for U.S. banks.
"I don't see anything that's on the horizon that's about to
explode. But I do understand there's an unease about this," he
said.
(Reporting By Andrea Shalal and Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by
Leslie Adler, Robert Birsel)
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