Banks Asked to Prepay 3 Years Worth of Fees to Rescue FDIC

[MichaelM]

The recent articles:
Banks Asked to Prepay 3 Years Worth of Fees to Rescue FDIC
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/194037-Banks-Asked-to-Prepay-3-Years-Worth-of-Fees-to-Rescue-FDIC
and
FDIC to Propose Banks Prepay 3 Years of Fees
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/193984-FDIC-to-Propose-Banks-Prepay-3-Years-of-Fees

...got me thinking that this is a "marker" (I imagine "marker" in the sense of a "milestone on the road to economic ruin") for significant economic turmoil ahead. I know I'm preaching to the choir on this board but I'd like to give more detail to my thoughts on why this might be a significant "marker".
DISCLAIMER: This is just a little speculation for now until I research more on exactly what and how much the FDIC fees are.

To replenish the fund, the FDIC wants banks to pay three years worth of fees, a move that could rake in $45 billion. If the proposal is enacted, the agency's 8,195 insured institutions would prepay by Dec. 31 their fees for the fourth quarter of this year and all of 2010, 2011, and 2012.

"This proposal is really about how and when the industry fulfills its obligations to the insurance fund," FDIC chief Sheila Bair said at a board meeting in Washington.

Bair explained why the agency selected the prepayment proposal over other options, such as tapping its $500 billion credit line with the Treasury Department.

"I do think that the American people would prefer to see an end to policies that look to the federal balance sheet as a remedy to every problem," she stated. "This is especially true in the case of this industry that has the resources to deal with these problems. It is important for the industry to maintain public confidence by demonstrating that it will not reflexively fall back on the public safety net in a period of distress."

I think that under the guise of behaving responsibly, this move of having to pre-pay 3 years worth of FDIC fees would put additional strain on banks that are already in trouble and would just accelerate the processing of "shutting down" banks (by supplying a plausible reason for doing so in advance? If the bank can't come up with 3 years fees, it could be shutdown).
("Shutting down" includes the smaller banks getting absorbed by the bigger banks)

I don't think there would be a run on banks or a collapse of the banking industry because of a sudden draw on the FDIC reserves since they still have the $500 billion credit line to tap (which could definitely be increased with legislation). Rather, I think this would be more of a "marker" for the accelerated consolidation of the banking industry to just the few big players.

Or even a move on trying to uproot credit unions perhaps?