U.S. bank failures cost is expected to reach 52 billion dollars in the period of 2010-2014, 8 billion dollars lower than the previous projection, according to a statement released by a U.S. banking regulator. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) provided the new estimate on Tuesday for losses of banks, down from a previous projection of 60 billion dollars. The FDIC said that owing to economic recovery, losses to the insurance fund from failures this year -- around 20 billion dollars -- have also been less than expected. Due to the financial crisis and severe recession, a total of 297 U.S. banks have failed since the start of 2008. There have been 131 bank failures so far this year. The FDIC had an imbalance of 20.7 billion dollars as of June 30. The FDIC also proposed a comprehensive, long-range plan for deposit insurance fund management with the goals of maintaining a positive fund balance, even during periods of large fund losses, and maintaining steady, predictable assessment rates throughout economic and credit cycles. This plan was formulated in response to changes to the FDIC's authority to manage the Deposit Insurance Fund contained in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act enacted in July. 