Senator Paul S. Sarbanes, the Chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, today announced that the full Committee will meet to receive an analysis of the causes surrounding the July, 2001 failure of Superior Bank in Illinois. The institution, which was placed in receivership by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, had assets of over $2 billion prior to its collapse. Reports suggested that the loss to the Savings Association Insurance Fund (SAIF) could be $500 million.

Following the failure of the Hinsdale, Illinois institution, Sarbanes requested the Inspector Generals' of both the Treasury Department and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to examine what possibly caused the failure and report back to the Senate Banking Committee as to how to prevent future failures. Their analysis will be received at the hearing.

Sarbanes also asked the General Accounting Office (GAO) to "look carefully at the specifics of this particular case (Superior Bank), as well as other cases addressed by the thrift and bank regulators to see whether similar issues have been raised in other institutions and whether and how the regulatory early warning system is working." The GAO also will be reporting on its findings.

The full Banking Committee also held an oversight hearing on October 16, 2001, which featured the Directors of both the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

The hearing will be held:

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