Seven banks were closed by the American banking regulator in one day last week. The banks, including six in Illinois, were brought down by plunging property prices, bad loans and high-risk investments.

The bill to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the country’s $49 billion bank deposit guarantor, for this round of failed banks was expected to hit $314.4 million (£194.4 million).

Coming on top of 46 collapses already this year, last Thursday’s failures — the most seen in a single day during the financial crisis — added a touch of urgency to the FDIC’s problem: how to offload these liabilities while not increasing the risks to its fund. “We want non-traditional investors,” Sheila Bair, the FDIC’s chairman, explained. “There is a significant need for capital and there is capital out there.”

The FDIC is funded by the banking sector and returns from its investment in US Treasury bonds. When a bank fails, the corporation protects customers’ deposits, usually up to the value of $250,000.

America’s recession has caused the number of bank collapses to rise steeply, increasing the FDIC’s interest in selling some banks to avoid pressure on its funds. At the same time, the most likely buyers, from the private equity industry, have their own problems. According to Preqin, the data provider, private equity funds were sitting on a $1 trillion war chest at the beginning of the year — but they are unable to do the highly leveraged deals that they favour because banks are no longer offering big loans for buyouts. Under pressure from investors to put their cash to work, the funds’ interest has turned to some of the larger failed banks. This is, in part, because the FDIC will sometimes agree to cover potential losses on the banks’ loan books.

So far, attempts by the FDIC to sell failed banks to private equity groups have been mixed. It sold IndyMac Federal Bank, of California, in January for $13.9 billion to a group of investors that included George Soros, Christopher Flowers and Michael Dell, the founder of Dell.

In May a consortium including Carlyle Group paid $945 million for Florida’s BankUnited Financial, which came with a guarantee that the FDIC would take most of the future losses from the bank’s existing books of business.

But last month the FDIC wound down Atlanta’s Silverton Bank after failing to agree a price with a consortium, again including Carlyle. In some bank auctions, the FDIC has contacted hundreds of potential bidders, only to receive a very few, if any, bids.

Private equity firms are nervous about the regulatory landscape, which is changing under President Obama, and the strictures to which they may become subject if they enter the banking sector. On Thursday the FDIC laid out ground rules for future deals, including a three-year restriction on selling the investment, tougher capital requirements for private equity firms than it requires of banks, a ban on purchases through offshore vehicles and ensuring that buyers of multiple banks offer a cross-guarantee, using the assets from one bank to prop up another bank in the group should it struggle. It was not clear, however, whether the FDIC’s proposals would encourage private equity buyers or drive them away.

Even the corporation’s board was unable to agree on the likely outcome. At a meeting before the release of the proposals, John Dugan, the Comptroller of the Currency, who is one of the FDIC’s five board members, said that the requirements were too tough.

David Lowenstein, president of the Private Equity Council, said that the proposals would “deter future private investments in banks that need fresh capital”.

Private equity firms now have a 30-day public comment period in which to try to tone down the FDIC’s requirements before they are concrete.

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