"I don't know what to do to support my family," said Sarah Wang, an /*IndyMac*/ customer who was protesting outside the FDIC building in Irvine on Monday.
The Costa Mesa mother of two lost nearly $40,000 when IndyMac Bank collapsed one year ago. The company was one of the largest casualties of the housing bust.
When the collapse first occurred, federal officials tried to calm customers as they lined up to withdraw their money from IndyMac.
"I never thought ... that I would lose any money in a bank," said Nasim Ahmed, a former IndyMac customer.
Although the first $100,000 of customers' deposits was insured, about 10,000 people had balances that exceeded that amount.
Nasim Ahmed is still out hundreds of thousands of dollars. He and the other protestors are calling on President Obama for help.
"We are not asking any favors, we are not asking bailout. We're asking [for] our own money," said Ahmed.
Many former customers accuse IndyMac of misleading them.
"I was led to believe that all my accounts were covered, each separately," said Fran Quittel, IndyMac customer.
Protestors say they were not insured for $100,000 per account. They say they were insured for a total of $100,000, no matter how many accounts they had.
An FDIC spokesman says customers have been reimbursed up to $100,000. Anyone who deposited more than that has received half of that money.
An FDIC statement noted, "It is difficult to say how much more, if any money will be paid to uninsured depositors. There is a strict legal receivership process involved, which could take years to unwind. But they are working hard to recoup as much money as possible for the uninsured depositors who are still owed money."
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