The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is amending its regulation on assessments in several ways. First, the FDIC is delaying the regular payment date for the first quarterly assessment payment that insured institutions must make for the first semiannual period of each year (first payment). The first payment has been due on December 30 of the prior year. The FDIC is changing the regular payment date to the January 2 (or the first business day thereafter). But at the same time, the FDIC is giving insured institutions the option of making the first payment on December 30 (or the prior business day). The FDIC's purpose in making this pair of changes is to relieve certain institutions of the regulatory burden of having to make an extra assessment payment in 1995, while at the same time affording flexibility to other institutions to make such a payment if they should so desire. Second, the FDIC is giving insured institutions the option of paying double the amount of any quarterly payment, when the payment is made on a payment date (regular or alternate, as the case may be) that comes before the start of the quarter to which the payment pertains-- i.e., on the March, June, September, and December payment dates. The FDIC is adopting this change in response to a suggestion made by a commenter. The FDIC believes the change will promote greater flexibility in the assessment procedures. Third, the FDIC is replacing the interest rate to be applied to underpayments and overpayments of assessments with a new, more sensitive rate derived from the 3-month Treasury bill discount rate. Rates set under the prior standard have rapidly become obsolete in volatile interest-rate markets; the new standard is more sensitive to current market conditions. Finally, the FDIC is shortening the timetable for announcing a change in the assessment rate from 45 days to 15 days prior to the invoice date. This change enables the FDIC to use the most up-to-date information available for compu