The curb is intended to encourage large depositors to open accounts at different banks.

A young boy coming to deposit the scholarship amount he got received the same service that large depositors enjoyed.

Since the new law, large depositors at 39 of the 72 banks, or 54 percent, that have failed this year have lost money.

In previous years, large depositors lost money in only about 15 percent of bank failures.

But he added that the hearing on Wednesday would not begin to address when and how the largest depositors could get their money returned.

Its effect would be to encourage large individual depositors to open accounts at different banks to obtain insurance.

But he cautioned that large depositors normally remove funds before a bank fails.

The largest depositor is the state, with $9.6 million tied up in three institutions.

Now that the committee is flush with cash, it's one of Nationsbank's largest depositors.

He pressured Federal regulators to increase insurance coverage for large depositors at the bank.