The new estimates raise questions about whether the industry will be able to repay a $30 billion taxpayer loan that the Administration has proposed to protect depositors.

The bill before the House would provide tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer loans to the nearly depleted deposit-insurance fund.

The House measure would provide billions of dollars in taxpayer loans to insure bank deposits.

In the first days of his tenure, he pushed Congress hard and quickly received a large taxpayer loan of more than $70 billion to bail out the Bank Insurance Fund.

The House and Senate took up banking measures that among other things would provide billions of dollars in taxpayer loans for the deposit insurance program.

Congress appears likely to adopt a stripped-down banking bill this week that would primarily provide $70 billion in taxpayer loans for the nearly empty fund that protects bank deposits.

A critical part of the legislation is a provision to provide a large taxpayer loan to the bank insurance fund, which has a balance of less than $3 billion.

Mr. Bush said last year that he had reluctantly agreed to the new banking law because it contained a desperately needed taxpayer loan to rescue the insolvent bank insurance fund.

The SNP was criticised for bailing out the event organisers with an interest-free taxpayer loan not widely publicised at the time.

The two bills that have been approved contain taxpayer loans of tens of billions of dollars for the nearly depleted Federal insurance program that protects bank deposits.