A top U.S. bank regulator said lawmakers need to be careful about moving forward with a proposal that could break up big banking institutions, while also voicing support for its objective.

The fund used to safeguard U.S. bank deposits dropped to a negative balance of $8.2 billion in the third quarter, the first shortfall since 1992, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said Tuesday.

The coroner’s report left no doubt as to the cause of death: toxic loans. That was the conclusion of a financial autopsy that federal officials performed on Haven Trust Bank, a small bank in Duluth, Ga., that collapsed last December, the New York Times reported.

A group of House Democrats are stepping up demands for greater transparency from the Federal Reserve after reports that the Fed mishandled the bailout of insurance giant American International Group.

The White House  Friday pushed back against a proposal in the U.S. Senate to create a single bank super-regulator and strip the Federal Reserve of its supervisory powers.

A top economic adviser to U.S. President Barack Obama warned on Friday that the urgency for changing the rules of the road for financial firms may be waning and urged Congress to act while the general public is focused on banking issues.

The Obama administration's new proposal for tackling financial risk in the U.S. economy, unveiled just two days ago, came under attack Thursday from all sides, with critics targeting its funding and scope.

A top U.S. bank regulator said Thursday a government mechanism to dismantle troubled giant financial companies should be pre-funded, a departure from the administration's draft legislation on the subject.

GMAC, the former lending arm of General Motors, is in talks with the Treasury Department for a third injection of taxpayer aid, a further sign of the U.S. government's entrenchment in the U.S. auto industry.

When a U.S. bank fails, it is up to the FDIC to ensure the stability of the failed bank's assets and deposits so that customers won't lose out when their bank of choice goes under.

To do this, the FDIC can either arrange for the sale of the failed bank's assets to an existing financial institution or directly pay out the failed bank's deposits, as long as they fall within the FDIC's insurance limits. The former "Purchase and Assumption Method" is most commonly used, but requires the FDIC to find a willing buyer, and often must sell assets at a discount, which may potentially cause billions in losses to the FDIC fund.

Federal regulators are likely to offer a limited emergency extension of a rescue program that guarantees hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. banks' debt.

Consumers will end up paying more money to banks if the numerous regulations proposed for the financial sector come to fruition, said Dick Bove, financial strategist for Rochdale Securities.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is expected to take the unprecedented step of collecting banks' regular premiums early to inject cash into the shrinking deposit insurance fund.

Treasury officials and regulators are weighing a fresh round of bailouts for banks that were deemed too small or too risky to qualify for earlier aid.

Regulators have approached big banks about borrowing billions to shore up the dwindling fund that insures regular deposit accounts.