BANK INSURANCE FUND (BIF)

A unit of the FDIC that provides insurance protections for banks that are not classified as a savings and loan association. As with all FDIC protection, the BIF provides coverage of up to $250,000 per customer account for insolvent banks. The BIF was created as a result of the savings and loan meltdown in the late eighties.

The creation of the BIF resulted in two separate branches of FDIC coverage. One is the BIF, while the other is the Savings Association Insurance Fund (SAIF). However, the insurance funds for these two entities were merged by Congress in 2005 into the Deposit Insurance Fund.