The most convenient solution for protecting your large deposits! The Certificate of Deposit Account Registry Service, or CDARS, is a deposit placement service offered by Promotory Interfinancial Network that enables banks like First County Bank to offer up to $50 million in federal deposit insurance coverage to customers, thus allowing them to keep their deposits in one bank. When a customer of First County Bank makes a large deposit, the bank arranges to place the funds into certificates of deposit issued by other network banks, in increments of less than $100,000 to ensure that both principal and interest are eligible for full FDIC protection. Deposits placed through CDARS meet the pass-through insurance coverage guidelines established by the FDIC. To view an informative video about CDARS, please click here. (This will launch a new window with the video file. Depending on the speed of your Internet connection, this may take up to a few minutes to fully load.)

Commonly asked questions regarding CDARS: Q.        Why do you say that CDs issued using CDARS are “eligible” for FDIC insurance? A.        You are ultimately responsible for ensuring that your funds are insured by listing where all of your deposits placed outside of CDARS are located. CDARS will not place funds in any institution listed by a depositor.  If a depositor were to fail to list all such institutions, CDARS might place funds in a bank where the customer already has money, which may put the customer over the $100,000 per bank limit. It is vital that you, the customer, disclose all accounts. Q.       What can be done if I don't feel comfortable with a particular bank in the CDARS Network? A.        Before your money is deposited, you can identify banks where you do not wish to have your deposits placed. Q.        What happens to my money if a bank issuing one of my CDs fails? A.        Because CDs issued by other banks through CDARS are never for more than $100,000, every penny invested through CDARS is eligible for full FDIC insurance.  In the event that the FDIC pays out funds to eligible customers, Promontory and The Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon) would file a claim on behalf of you. The typical timeframe for payout should be just a few business days.  Q.   What happens to a CDARS depositor’s account and funds in the event its relationship bank fails? A.    In the majority of cases, the FDIC will sell the deposits (and deposit relationships) to another institution.  Such was the case with the only CDARS institution that has been closed by the FDIC.  The depositors were notified at the time of the closure of the name of the new institution and were able to commence doing business at that new institution the following business day.

If you have any questions or would like more information, please call (203) 462-4400 or stop by any of our branch offices.