Fed's Powell discussed FDIC limits with House Republicans -lawmaker

By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told Republican lawmakers that Congress should re-evaluate limits on the size of federally insured bank deposits, U.S. Representative Kevin Hern said on Wednesday.

"We talked about that but he said it was the role for Congress to really evaluate. Thought it was a great topic to bring up," Hern said after Powell spoke to a closed-door meeting of the Republican Study Committee.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp currently insures up to $250,000 per depositor, but the Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapses this month have raised questions over whether insurance limits needed to be raised.

On another topic, Hern said Powell told Republicans that he believed supply chain inflation had mostly been mitigated.

The Republican Study Committee, the largest caucus in Congress, invited Powell at a time when Republicans and Democrats are battling over raising Washington's $31.4 trillion debt ceiling and crafting a budget for the fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1.

The health of the banking industry has also weighed heavily on the minds of lawmakers and regulators lately.

Hern said Powell acknowledged during the meeting that the flurry of deposits moving from smaller banks to the industry's giants had been a problem "early on" following the two banks' collapse, but "that has slowed to stopped."

(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Scott Malone and Josie Kao)