The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation board has voted in favour of new rules for buyout firms that invest in failed US commercial banks and has eased some of the restrictions proposed two months ago, but industry sources are still concerned that private equity firms are being treated more stringently than other potential investors.

Among the most important of the new rules is that the private equity firm must maintain the bank's tier-one common equity requirement at 10%, which remains higher than the 5% requirement for banks without private equity ownership. The previously proposed requirement was a 15% tier-one leverage ratio, which takes into account a bank's average consolidated assets.