FDIC chairman Sheila Bair told CNBC's Larry Kudlow Tuesday evening that commercial real estate loans remain a "looming problem" for banks' balance sheets and she expects the area to increasingly be a driver for bank failures during the remainder of this year and 2010.
So far, this year 84 U.S. banks have failed, compared to 25 last year and only three in 2008.
Bair said she would try to avoid tapping its line of credit with the Treasury Department. "We'd like to try to avoid that," Bair told CNBC.
