Collapse Of Silicon Valley Bank
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On Friday, March 10, 2023,
Silicon Valley Bank Silicon Valley Bank is an American commercial bank. SVB is on the list of largest banks in the United States, and is the biggest bank in Silicon Valley based on local deposits. It is a subsidiary of SVB Financial Group. History Silicon Valley Ba ...
(SVB) failed after a
bank run A bank run or run on the bank occurs when many clients withdraw their money from a bank, because they believe the bank may cease to function in the near future. In other words, it is when, in a fractional-reserve banking system (where banks no ...
, marking the second-largest bank failure in United States history and the largest since the 2007–2008 financial crisis. It was one of three
March 2023 United States bank failures Over the course of five days in March 2023, three small- to mid-size U.S. banks failed, triggering a sharp decline in global bank stock prices and swift response by regulators to prevent potential global financial contagion, contagion. Silverga ...
. Seeking higher investment returns from its burgeoning deposits, SVB had dramatically increased its holdings of long-term
securities A security is a tradable financial asset. The term commonly refers to any form of financial instrument, but its legal definition varies by jurisdiction. In some countries and languages people commonly use the term "security" to refer to any for ...
over 2021, accounting for them on a hold-to-maturity basis. The market value of these bonds decreased significantly through 2022 and into 2023 as the
Federal Reserve The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States of America. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a ...
raised
interest rate An interest rate is the amount of interest due per period, as a proportion of the amount lent, deposited, or borrowed (called the principal sum). The total interest on an amount lent or borrowed depends on the principal sum, the interest rate, th ...
s to curb an inflation surge, causing unrealized losses on the portfolio. Higher interest rates also raised borrowing costs throughout the economy and some Silicon Valley Bank clients started pulling money out to meet their liquidity needs. To raise cash to pay withdrawals by its depositors, SVB announced on Wednesday, March 8 that it had sold over US$21 billion worth of securities, borrowed $15billion, and would hold an emergency sale of some of its
treasury stock A treasury stock or reacquired stock is stock which is bought back by the issuing company, reducing the amount of outstanding stock on the open market ("open market" including insiders' holdings). Stock repurchases are used as a tax efficient ...
to raise $2.25billion. The announcement, coupled with warnings from prominent Silicon Valley investors, caused a bank run as customers withdrew funds totaling $42billion by the following day, Thursday. On the morning of March 10, the
California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation  (DFPI), formerly the Department of Business Oversight (DBO), regulates a variety of financial services, businesses, products, and professionals. The department operates under th ...
seized SVB and placed it under the receivership of the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is one of two agencies that supply deposit insurance to depositors in American depository institutions, the other being the National Credit Union Administration, which regulates and insures cred ...
(FDIC). An additional $100 billion were expected to be withdrawn during Friday. About 89 percent of the bank's $172billion in deposit liabilities exceeded the maximum insured by the FDIC. Two days after the failure, the FDIC received exceptional authority from the Treasury and announced jointly with other agencies that all depositors would have full access to their funds the next morning. Seeking to auction off all or parts of the bank, the FDIC reopened it on Monday March 13 as a newly organized
bridge bank A bridge bank is an institution created by a national regulator or central bank to operate a failed bank until a buyer can be found. While national laws vary, the bridge bank is usually established by a publicly backed deposit insurance organis ...
, Silicon Valley Bridge Bank, N.A. Although some characterized the government response as a
bailout A bailout is the provision of financial help to a corporation or country which otherwise would be on the brink of bankruptcy. A bailout differs from the term ''bail-in'' (coined in 2010) under which the bondholders or depositors of global sys ...
, the plan did not entail rescuing the bank, its management or shareholders, but rather making uninsured depositors whole from the proceeds of selling the bank's assets, without the use of taxpayer money. The collapse of SVB had significant consequences for
startup companies A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...
in the U.S. and abroad, with many briefly unable to withdraw money from the bank. Other large technology companies, media companies, and wineries were also affected. For a number of founders and their venture capital backers, this was the bank of choice.


Background

SVB was a
commercial bank A commercial bank is a financial institution which accepts deposits from the public and gives loans for the purposes of consumption and investment to make profit. It can also refer to a bank, or a division of a large bank, which deals with cor ...
founded in 1983 and headquartered in
Santa Clara, California Santa Clara (; Spanish for " Saint Clare") is a city in Santa Clara County, California. The city's population was 127,647 at the 2020 census, making it the eighth-most populous city in the Bay Area. Located in the southern Bay Area, the cit ...
. At its collapse, SVB was the 16th largest bank in the U.S. by total assets and was heavily skewed toward serving companies and individuals from the technology industry. Nearly half of U.S.
venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...
-backed healthcare and technology companies were financed by SVB. Companies such as
Airbnb Airbnb, Inc. ( ), based in San Francisco, California, operates an online marketplace focused on short-term homestays and experiences. The company acts as a broker and charges a commission from each booking. The company was founded in 2008 b ...
,
Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, ...
,
Fitbit Fitbit (stylized as fitbit) is an American consumer electronics and fitness company. It produces wireless-enabled wearable technology, physical fitness monitors and activity trackers such as smartwatches, pedometers and monitors for heart rate ...
,
Pinterest Pinterest is an American image sharing and social media service designed to enable saving and discovery of information (specifically "ideas") on the internet using images, and on a smaller scale, animated GIFs and videos, in the form of pinboard ...
, and
Block, Inc. Block, Inc. (formerly Square, Inc.) is an American multinational technology Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 2009 by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey and launched its first platform in 2010. It has been traded as a public company on ...
have been clients of the bank. In addition to financing venture-backed companies, SVB was well known as a source of
private banking Private banking is banking, investment and other financial services provided by banks and financial institutions primarily serving high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs)—defined as those with very high levels of income or sizable assets. A bank that ...
, personal credit lines, and mortgages to tech entrepreneurs, and specialized lending money to higher-risk new companies. Silicon Valley Bank required an exclusive relationship of those borrowing from the bank. Prior to Thursday March 9, 2023, SVB was in "sound financial condition", according to the
California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation  (DFPI), formerly the Department of Business Oversight (DBO), regulates a variety of financial services, businesses, products, and professionals. The department operates under th ...
, though an increased number of short sellers began to target SVB earlier in the year. Employees received their annual bonuses on March 10, 2023, hours before the government took control of the company. As of the last call report of the bank, filed on December 31, 2022, it held $209billion in total assets, with $175.5billion in total deposits, of which the bank estimated $151.6billion (86.4 percent) were uninsured.


Collapse


Losses

The bank's deposits increased from $62billion in March 2020 to $124billion in March 2021, benefiting from the
impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on science and technology The COVID-19 pandemic has affected many scientific and technical institutions globally, resulting in lower productivity in a number of fields and programs. However, the impact of the pandemic has led to the opening of several new research fundi ...
. Most of these deposits were invested in long-term
Treasury bonds United States Treasury securities, also called Treasuries or Treasurys, are government debt instruments issued by the United States Department of the Treasury to finance government spending as an alternative to taxation. Since 2012, U.S. gov ...
as the bank sought a higher
return on investment Return on investment (ROI) or return on costs (ROC) is a ratio between net income (over a period) and investment (costs resulting from an investment of some resources at a point in time). A high ROI means the investment's gains compare favourably ...
than was available on shorter-term bonds. These long-term bonds fell in current market value as
interest rates An interest rate is the amount of interest due per period, as a proportion of the amount lent, deposited, or borrowed (called the principal sum). The total interest on an amount lent or borrowed depends on the principal sum, the interest rate, th ...
rose during the 2021–2023 inflation surge and they became less attractive as investments relative to newer bond issues. In April 2022, SVB's
chief risk officer The chief risk officer (CRO) or chief risk management officer (CRMO) or chief risk and compliance officer (CRCO) of a firm or corporation is the executive accountable for enabling the efficient and effective governance of significant risks, and rel ...
stepped down, and a successor was not named until January 2023—a period coinciding with the period of interest rate increases. At the end of 2022, the bank had a $117 billion bond portfolio, divided into a $91.3 billion held-to-maturity portfolio (meaning it was not marked to market and profits or losses would not be realized until maturity) and a $26 billion available-for-sale portfolio (which as the name implies was marked to market). At that point in time, its marked-to-market unrealized losses for securities held to maturity exceeded $15billion. The bank did not
hedge A hedge or hedgerow is a line of closely spaced shrubs and sometimes trees, planted and trained to form a barrier or to mark the boundary of an area, such as between neighbouring properties. Hedges that are used to separate a road from adjoini ...
against interest rate risk on that part of its bond portfolio, apparently for the same reason that most banks do not: the hedge itself would bounce around with the market, while the point of holding bonds to maturity is to hold them
at par Par value, in finance and accounting, means stated value or face value. From this come the expressions at par (at the par value), over par (over par value) and under par (under par value). Bonds A bond selling at par is priced at 100% of face v ...
. Most banks minimize interest rate risk in their held-to-maturity portfolios by buying shorter-term bonds. The bank did hedge against interest rate risk on its available-for-sale portfolio by building up a portfolio of $15.2 billion of interest rate swaps by the end of 2021. At the same time, startup companies withdrew deposits from the bank to fund their operations as private financing became harder to come by. A series of layoffs in the technology sector that began in 2022 also caused depositors to draw down their savings. During the first half of 2022, the bank realized $517 million in gains by unwinding $11 billion of its interest rate swaps on its available-for-sale bond portfolio. By the end of the year, it had only $563 million in swaps protecting that portfolio. In early 2023, to raise needed cash to fund withdrawals, the bank sold all of its available-for-sale securities, realizing a $1.8billion loss. The bank was criticized for timing its announcement shortly after
Silvergate Bank Silvergate Bank is a Californian bank that mostly deals in cryptocurrency transactions. Concerns have been raised about Silvergate's health following the fall in cryptocurrency prices and the bankruptcy of FTX in 2022. History Silvergate Ba ...
, which catered to
cryptocurrency A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto is a digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. It i ...
users, started winding down its operations, and for not lining up private funding ahead of the announcement. Some banking experts said that the bank would have managed its risks better had it not been for the
Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act The Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (abbreviated EGRRCPA; , ) was signed into law by President Donald Trump on May 24, 2018. The bill eased financial regulations imposed by Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Con ...
(EGRRCPA), enacted in 2018 and supported by SVB CEO Greg Becker, which reduced the frequency and number of scenarios of required
stress testing Stress testing (sometimes called torture testing) is a form of deliberately intense or thorough testing used to determine the stability of a given system, critical infrastructure or entity. It involves testing beyond normal operational capacity, ...
implemented under the
Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, commonly referred to as Dodd–Frank, is a United States federal law that was enacted on July 21, 2010. The law overhauled financial regulation in the aftermath of the Great Recessi ...
for banks with under $250billion in assets. The
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (informally referred to as the San Francisco Fed) is the federal bank for the twelfth district in the United States. The twelfth district is made up of nine western states—Alaska, Arizona, California, ...
did have discretion to annually examine any bank with $100 billion in assets. In implementing the regulatory changes, Federal Reserve Vice Chair
Randal Quarles Randal Keith Quarles (born September 5, 1957) is an American private equity investor and attorney who served as the first Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve for supervision from 2017 to 2021. He concurrently served as the chair of the Financial St ...
also changed the Federal Reserve's bank supervisory culture, allegedly making routine supervision less intense and more predictable.


Instability

A 2021 Federal Reserve review of the bank found several deficiencies in its risk management procedures. The bank failed to fix six citations issued by the Fed and was placed under a full supervisory review in July 2022. In the autumn, San Francisco Fed officials met with SVB senior leaders to discuss the bank's ability to raise cash in a crisis and possible exposure to losses as interest rates rose. Fed officials determined the bank was using flawed models that led SVB officers to incorrectly believe rising interest rates would increase the bank's interest revenue to substantially stabilize its financial condition. By early 2023, the Fed placed SVB in a "horizontal review" of its risk management procedures. In the week before the collapse,
Moody's Investors Service Moody's Investors Service, often referred to as Moody's, is the bond credit rating business of Moody's Corporation, representing the company's traditional line of business and its historical name. Moody's Investors Service provides international ...
reportedly informed SVB Financial, the bank's
holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...
, that it was facing a potential double-downgrade of its
credit rating A credit rating is an evaluation of the credit risk of a prospective debtor (an individual, a business, company or a government), predicting their ability to pay back the debt, and an implicit forecast of the likelihood of the debtor defaulting. ...
because of its unrealized losses. On March 8, 2023, SVB announced it had sold over $21billion worth of its investments, borrowed $15billion, and would hold an emergency sale of its stock to raise $2.25billion, including $500 million to
General Atlantic General Atlantic (also known as "GA") is an American growth equity firm providing capital and strategic support for global growth companies, headquartered in New York, United States. The firm was founded in 1980 as the captive investment team for ...
.
JPMorgan Chase JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the ...
and
Bank of America The Bank of America Corporation (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The bank w ...
turned down opportunities to acquire the bank. Despite the steps taken by the bank, Moody's downgraded SVB on March 8. Investors at several
venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...
firms, including executives at
Peter Thiel Peter Andreas Thiel (; born 11 October 1967) is a German-American billionaire entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and political activist. A co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, he was the first outside investor in Fac ...
's
Founders Fund Founders Fund is a San Francisco-based venture capital firm. Formed in 2005, Founders Fund had more than $11 billion in aggregate capital under management as of 2022. The firm invests across all stages and sectors, including aerospace, artificia ...
,
Union Square Ventures Union Square Ventures (USV) is an American venture capital firm based in New York City. The firm has backed more than 130 startups, including Twitter, Etsy, Stripe, Coinbase, Zynga, Tumblr, Stack Overflow, Meetup, Kickstarter, MongoDB, Flurry, ...
and
Coatue Management Coatue is an American technology-focused investment manager led by founder and portfolio manager Philippe Laffont. Coatue invests in public and private markets with a focus on technology, media, telecommunications. the consumer and healthcare se ...
urged their portfolio companies to withdraw their deposits from the bank, with Founders Fund withdrawing all of its funds from the bank by the morning of March 9. By the close of business that day, customers had withdrawn $42billion, leaving the bank with a negative cash balance of about $958million. Among the financial services companies receiving money from SVB customers were
Brex Brex Inc is an American financial service and technology company based in San Francisco, California. Brex offers business credit cards and Cash Management Accounts to technology companies. Brex cards are business charge cards, which require at ...
, JPMorgan Chase,
Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the fir ...
and
First Republic Bank First Republic Bank is an American full-service bank and wealth management company offering personal banking, business banking, trust, and wealth management services, catering to low-risk, high net-worth clientele, and focusing on providing pe ...
. The value of SVB's shares plummeted until a
trading halt A trading halt occurs in the U.S. when a stock exchange stops trading on a specific security for a certain time period. The halt, which can happen a few times a day per security if FINRA deems it, usually lasts for one hour, but is not limited to ...
was implemented on the morning of March 10. On February 27, SVB Financial Group CEO Greg Becker sold 12,451 shares of company stock, worth $3.6million, through an executive trading plan that he filed with the SEC under Rule 10b5-1 on January 26. The rule has been criticized as a loophole allowing for
insider trading Insider trading is the trading of a public company's stock or other securities (such as bonds or stock options) based on material, nonpublic information about the company. In various countries, some kinds of trading based on insider information ...
. Beginning April 1, the SEC will require a minimum 90-day cooling period for most executive trading plans.


Receivership

On the morning of March 10, examiners from the
Federal Reserve The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States of America. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a ...
and the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is one of two agencies that supply deposit insurance to depositors in American depository institutions, the other being the National Credit Union Administration, which regulates and insures cred ...
(FDIC) arrived at the offices of SVB to assess the company's finances. Several hours later, the
California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation  (DFPI), formerly the Department of Business Oversight (DBO), regulates a variety of financial services, businesses, products, and professionals. The department operates under th ...
issued an order taking possession of SVB, citing inadequate liquidity and insolvency, and appointed the FDIC as receiver. The failure of SVB was the largest by assets of any bank since the
financial crisis of 2007–2008 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fi ...
and the second-largest failure of an FDIC-insured bank. According to regulatory reports as of December 31, 2022, uninsured deposits were estimated to represent 89percent of total deposits at the bank. With no other bank immediately offering to assume or guarantee them, the FDIC organized a Deposit Insurance National Bank of Santa Clara (DINB) to re-open the bank's branches the following Monday and enable access to insured deposits only. It announced that it would begin paying dividends for uninsured funds within the following week as SVB's assets were liquidated. Moody's Investor Service projected a recovery rate for uninsured depositors of 80–90 percent. The FDIC notified Silicon Valley Bank employees that they would be let go in 45 days' time; in the meantime, it offered salaried employees a 50% raise and hourly employees double pay for any overtime. The
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (informally referred to as the San Francisco Fed) is the federal bank for the twelfth district in the United States. The twelfth district is made up of nine western states—Alaska, Arizona, California, ...
stated that the bank's CEO Greg Becker was no longer on its board of directors. The simultaneous failures of SVB and New York's
Signature Bank Signature Bank was an American full-service commercial bank headquartered in New York City and with 40 private client offices in the states of New York, Connecticut, California, Nevada, and North Carolina. In addition to banking products, spe ...
raised concern about the condition of other regional banks, with particular attention to
First Republic Bank First Republic Bank is an American full-service bank and wealth management company offering personal banking, business banking, trust, and wealth management services, catering to low-risk, high net-worth clientele, and focusing on providing pe ...
and
Western Alliance The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two Nor ...
. Faced with the possibility of a broader loss of confidence, on March 12 the Treasury granted the FDIC an exception allowing it to guarantee the uninsured deposits of both failed banks and to cover the expense through special assessments on other member banks. On March 13 the FDIC transferred SVB assets to a new
bridge bank A bridge bank is an institution created by a national regulator or central bank to operate a failed bank until a buyer can be found. While national laws vary, the bridge bank is usually established by a publicly backed deposit insurance organis ...
, Silicon Valley Bridge Bank, N.A., and appointed Tim Mayopoulos as CEO. The bridge bank consolidated insured and uninsured deposits into a single institution, making it more attractive to prospective buyers. There is a dispute about whether the U.S. government's guarantee to insure depositors in full, rather than just the $250,000 per account protected by law, qualifies as a bailout. President Joe Biden denied the term bailout applies in this particular case. Treasury Secretary
Janet Yellen Janet Louise Yellen (born August 13, 1946) is an American economist serving as the 78th United States secretary of the treasury since January 26, 2021. She previously served as the 15th chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2018. Yellen is t ...
had already ruled out bailing out SVB. Silicon Valley Bank's overseas subsidiaries held $13.9 billion in deposits. The
Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of ...
issued a statement that it sought a court order to place the United Kingdom subsidiary of the bank into a Bank Insolvency Procedure.
Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co. Ltd (SPDB or Pufa; ) is a state-owned joint-stock commercial bank, established in 1993, with its headquarters located in Shanghai. Shanghai Pudong Development Bank issued a 400 million A-share offer on Septemb ...
issued a statement that its joint operations with SVB, chaired by its own Shanghai-based chairman, were not affected by the collapse as of March 11. Canadian regulator
Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI; french: Bureau du surintendant des institutions financières, BSIF) is an independent agency of the Government of Canada reporting to the Minister of Finance created "to contribute ...
(OSFI) temporarily seized control of SVB Canada on March 12. On March 15, OSFI took permanent control of the bank and announced it would restructure SVB Canada to a new bridge bank to be created by the FDIC, after the regulator was unable to find a buyer. An initial auction of Silicon Valley Bank assets on March 12 attracted a single bid that was not from a bank, after
PNC Financial Services The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (stylized as PNC) is an American bank holding company and financial services corporation based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Its banking subsidiary, PNC Bank, operates in 27 U.S. state, states and the D ...
and
RBC Bank RBC Bank is the trading name of RBC Bank (Georgia), N.A., the United States-based retail banking division of the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) which is targeted toward Canadian snowbirds, expatriates, and frequent tourists. Despite its limited reac ...
backed away from making offers. Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and
Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, H ...
all declined to make offers. The FDIC canceled the auction, scheduling a second to attract bids from major banks, after the systemic risk exception was granted. Mayopoulos urged venture capitalists and startups to keep their deposits in the bridge bank, apparently to improve the its financial condition, and suggested that customers return some of the deposits they had recently pulled out of the bank as part of a diversification strategy. A group of venture capitalists called for depositors to keep at least half of their capital in the bank. The seizure of Silicon Valley Bank's assets severely disrupted SVB Financial Group's operations. The holding company was locked out of its Santa Clara headquarters, which were shared with the bank, forcing it to move its headquarters to its New York City offices. The holding company, bridge bank, and FDIC are discussing how to reorganize payroll systems. All of SVB Financial Group's employees have been on the payroll of Silicon Valley Bank, not SVB Financial Group, while the parent company has been providing
employee benefits Employee benefits and (especially in British English) benefits in kind (also called fringe benefits, perquisites, or perks) include various types of non-wage compensation provided to employees in addition to their normal wages or salaries. Inst ...
to all Silicon Valley Bank employees. Some employees had split their time between the two companies. SVB Financial Group began exploring a potential sale of the bank's sister companies SVB Capital and SVB Securities. The latter's founder, Jeffrey Leerink, has expressed interest in buying back the firm. However, the finances of these companies are deeply intertwined with Silicon Valley Bank, which could complicate any sale. The company filed
Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, whe ...
one week after the bank's failure. A group including
Centerbridge Partners Centerbridge Partners is a multi-strategy private investment firm focused on leveraged buyouts and distressed securities. The firm manages over $32 billion of assets
,
Davidson Kempner Capital Management Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP (“Davidson Kempner”) is a global institutional alternative investment management firm with over $38 billion in assets under management. Davidson Kempner is headquartered in New York City, with additional ...
, and
PIMCO PIMCO (Pacific Investment Management Company, LLC) is an American investment management firm focusing on active fixed income management worldwide. PIMCO manages investments in many asset classes such as fixed income, equities, commodities, asset ...
reportedly bought a stake in the company in anticipation of the bankruptcy. According to FDIC chairman
Martin J. Gruenberg Martin J. Gruenberg (born 1953) is an American government official and attorney who is the two-time and current chairman, as well as three-time acting chairman, of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Education Gruenberg holds ...
, the estimated cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund to cover the bank's collapse was $20billionincluding $18billion to cover uninsured deposits.


Acquisition

HSBC UK announced on March 13, 2023, that it had agreed to acquire Silicon Valley Bank UK for £1, at no cost to taxpayers and with depositors fully protected. On March 26, 2023, the FDIC announced that
First Citizens BancShares First Citizens Bancshares, Inc. is a bank holding company based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Its primary subsidiary is First Citizens Bank. It is on the list of largest banks in the United States. As of December 31, 2019, the company operated 57 ...
will acquire the commercial banking business of SVB. As part of the deal, First Citizens will buy around $119billion in deposits and $72billion of SVB's loans discounted by $16.5billion, while around $90billion of SVB's securities will continue to remain in receivership. The FDIC will receive about $500million-worth of equity appreciation rights linked to First Citizens' shares. SVB's 17branches will reopen under the First Citizens brand the next day, with all SVB depositors becoming depositors of First Citizens. SVB Private was initially going to be auctioned separately but First Citizens later acquired the business as well.


Effects

Experts initially did not expect SVB's collapse to pose a
systemic risk In finance, systemic risk is the risk of collapse of an entire financial system or entire market, as opposed to the risk associated with any one individual entity, group or component of a system, that can be contained therein without harming the ...
to the U.S. financial system. However, although experts think these effects are temporary, the bank's collapse created hardships among some tech startups, and companies holding significant uninsured deposits and low cash flow faced significant risks.


Customers

Many
startups A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an Entrepreneurship, entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses t ...
were unable to retrieve money, resulting in companies taking out loans to make
payroll A payroll is the list of employees of some company that is entitled to receive payments as well as other work benefits and the amounts that each should receive. Along with the amounts that each employee should receive for time worked or tasks pe ...
. Because California state law requires employees to be paid within a certain number of days, continued inability to access deposits could have caused a large number of startups to
furlough A furlough (; from nl, verlof, "leave of absence") is a temporary leave of employees due to special needs of a company or employer, which may be due to economic conditions of a specific employer or in society as a whole. These furloughs may be s ...
workers, reduce their workforce through
layoff A layoff or downsizing is the temporary suspension or permanent termination of employment of an employee or, more commonly, a group of employees (collective layoff) for business reasons, such as personnel management or downsizing (reducing the ...
s, or shut down entirely. The bank's collapse also reduces available funding for startups on the
venture debt Venture debt or venture lending (related: "venture leasing") is a type of debt financing provided to venture-backed companies by specialized banks or non-bank lenders to fund working capital or capital expenses, such as purchasing equipment. Venture ...
market, which has grown in importance as venture capital firms have dramatically scaled back their investments. E-commerce company
Etsy Etsy, Inc. is an American e-commerce company focused on handmade or vintage items and craft supplies. These items fall under a wide range of categories, including jewelry, bags, clothing, home décor and furniture, toys, art, as well as craft su ...
was forced to delay seller payouts; the company used SVB to send out deposits to some sellers. The bank's collapse coincided with the beginning of the annual, startup-oriented
South by Southwest Interactive South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...
conference in
Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...
. Aside from some disruption caused by SVB credit cards, attendees maintained an air of calm during the event. In the days after the collapse, startup founders and other customers lined up outside bank branches in Silicon Valley and San Francisco, seeking to withdraw their deposits or learn the status of their wire transfers. Many technology entrepreneurs regained access to their deposits on March 13. In a
Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...
(SEC) filing, streaming media company
Roku, Inc. Roku, Inc. ( ) is an American publicly traded company based in San Jose, California, that manufactures a variety of digital media players for video streaming. Roku has an advertising business and also licenses its hardware and software to othe ...
revealed that around a quarter of the company's cash reserves—$487million—were held by SVB. Other companies affected by the collapse include video game developer
Roblox Corporation Roblox Corporation is an American video game developer based in San Mateo, California. Founded in 2004 by David Baszucki and Erik Cassel, the company is the developer of ''Roblox'', which was released in 2006. As of December 31, 2021, Roblox C ...
, video hosting service
Vimeo Vimeo, Inc. () is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. Vimeo's business model is through software as ...
, and payroll processor, Rippling. More than 1,500
climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
–related technology startups had taken out loans or had
lines of credit A line of credit is a credit facility extended by a bank or other financial institution to a government, business or individual customer that enables the customer to draw on the facility when the customer needs funds. A line of credit takes se ...
with Silicon Valley Bank. The failure came at a sensitive time when many such startups were scaling up to meet expected demand from the
Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) is a landmark United States federal law which aims to curb inflation by reducing the deficit, lowering prescription drug prices, and investing into domestic energy production while promoting clean ener ...
. Outside the technology startup space,
Vox Media Vox Media, Inc. is an American mass media company based in Washington, D.C., and New York City. The company was established in November 2011 by Jim Bankoff and Trei Brundrett to encompass ''SB Nation'' (a sports blog network founded in 2005 by ...
and
BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Ken ...
had its cash concentrated at the bank, and Vox Media saw its SVB-issued credit cards stop working. The
California wine California wine production has a rich viticulture history since 1680 when Spanish Jesuit missionaries planted ''Vitis vinifera'' vines native to the Mediterranean region in their established missions to produce wine for religious services. I ...
industry was also affected by SVB's collapse, since it was a leading regional winery banker. Some
Oregon wine The state of Oregon in the United States has established an international reputation for its production of wine, ranking fourth in the country behind California, Washington, and New York. Oregon has several different growing regions within the s ...
ries were also affected. The bank's premium wine division had about $1.1 billion in outstanding loans to about 400 clients. California Governor
Gavin Newsom Gavin Christopher Newsom (born October 10, 1967) is an American politician and businessman who has been the 40th governor of California since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 49th lieutenant governor of California fr ...
's wine companies were among the bank's clients. Businessman
Mark Cuban Mark Cuban (born July 31, 1958) is an American billionaire entrepreneur, television personality, and media proprietor whose net worth is an estimated $4.8 billion, according to ''Forbes'', and ranked No. 177 on the 2020 ''Forbes'' 400 list ...
reportedly had millions in the bank, along with his side venture
Cost Plus Drugs Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company (MCCPDC), doing business as Cost Plus Drugs, is a public benefit corporation (PBC) with its main headquarters located in Dallas, Texas. The company is focused on the pharmacy distribution of drugs with a stated ...
. Since 2002, the bank had made $2.7 billion in loans and investments, including $1.6 billion in loans since 2014, to build nearly 10,000 units of affordable housing in Silicon Valley and San Francisco, as well as affordable housing in Massachusetts (from its 2021 acquisition of Boston Private). The collapse left 11 projects in the
San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
in limbo, plus two more in Los Angeles and the Central Valley. Housing advocates predicted delays and difficulty assembling funding. Some nonprofit organizations expect to deal with fallout from the bank's collapse for months. As a legacy of SVB's Boston Private acquisition, it provided free banking services to many nonprofits in
San Mateo County, California San Mateo County ( ), officially the County of San Mateo, is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 764,442. Redwood City, California, Redwoo ...
, who have needed to redirect donations to alternative bank accounts. Ahmad Thomas, CEO of the
Silicon Valley Leadership Group The Silicon Valley Leadership Group (abbreviated SVLG) is a non-profit advocacy group in Silicon Valley, California, in the United States. Its members are businesses that operate in the valley and its purpose is to influence public policy rel ...
, of which the bank was a member, described the failure as a setback for the
San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
's startup ecosystem and noted that it would be difficult to replicate the bank's business model.


Shareholders

Silicon Valley Bank's holding company, SVB Financial Group, was a component of the
S&P 500 The Standard and Poor's 500, or simply the S&P 500, is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices. As of D ...
. At the time of the collapse, its largest shareholders included
The Vanguard Group The Vanguard Group, Inc. is an American registered investment advisor based in Malvern, Pennsylvania, with about $7 trillion in global assets under management, as of January 13, 2021. It is the largest provider of mutual funds and the second-lar ...
,
BlackRock BlackRock, Inc. is an American Multinational corporation, multi-national investment company based in New York City. Founded in 1988, initially as a Enterprise risk management, risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackR ...
, and
State Street Corporation State Street Corporation is an American financial services and bank holding company headquartered at One Lincoln Street in Boston with operations worldwide. It is the second-oldest continually operating United States bank; its predecessor, Un ...
, which owned the stock in large exchange traded funds that track the performance of
S&P 500 The Standard and Poor's 500, or simply the S&P 500, is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices. As of D ...
. The South Korean
National Pension Service The National Pension Service of Korea (NPS; ) is a public pension fund in South Korea. It is the third largest in the world with $800 billion in assets, and is the largest investor in South Korea. South Korea's National Pension Service (NPS), wh ...
owned 100,000 shares in SVB's holding company, SVB Financial Group.
CalPERS The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) is an agency in the California executive branch that "manages pension and health benefits for more than 1.5 million California public employees, retirees, and their families".CalPERSFac ...
(California state pension fund) held about $67 million in bonds to the bank, or less than two percent of one percent of total investments, as of June 2022. On March 13, shares of similar regional banks, including
First Republic Bank First Republic Bank is an American full-service bank and wealth management company offering personal banking, business banking, trust, and wealth management services, catering to low-risk, high net-worth clientele, and focusing on providing pe ...
, Western Alliance Bancorporation, and
PacWest Bancorp PacWest Bancorp is a bank holding company based in Beverly Hills, California, with one wholly owned banking subsidiary, Pacific Western Bank. It has 69 branches in California, primarily in the southern and central parts of the state, one in Denv ...
plummeted.


Financial system

Market capitalization Market capitalization, sometimes referred to as market cap, is the total value of a publicly traded company's outstanding common shares owned by stockholders. Market capitalization is equal to the market price per common share multiplied by t ...
of U.S. banks lost a combined $100billion in two days and European banks lost $50billion. SVB's losses highlighted the challenge that banks could face as interest rate increases reduced the market value of bonds that they purchased under low-rate policies. Some companies have sought safety with larger commercial banks, transferring their deposits out from regional banks similar to Silicon Valley Bank, raising concerns about further instability in the banking sector. Several banks, such as
First Republic Bank First Republic Bank is an American full-service bank and wealth management company offering personal banking, business banking, trust, and wealth management services, catering to low-risk, high net-worth clientele, and focusing on providing pe ...
and Western Alliance Bancorporation, issued press releases seeking to calm investors. Despite these concerns, banking experts believe that other banks will remain stable as SVB was overly specialized in providing banking to a risky sector of the economy, and
financial regulation Financial regulation is a form of regulation or supervision, which subjects financial institutions to certain requirements, restrictions and guidelines, aiming to maintain the stability and integrity of the financial system. This may be handled ...
s have strengthened since the
2008 financial crisis 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...
, which preceded the
Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At ...
. SVB had, in 2021, reached the threshold under the Dodd-Frank Act requiring it to submit a resolution plan ("living will") to the FDIC, which it did the following year. It had not participated in periodic stress testing under the act, as the threshold for that requirement had been raised in 2018 under EGRRCPA; SVB's chief executive was among those requesting the change. On March 12, 2023, Signature Bank was also closed, being taken into possession by the
New York State Department of Financial Services The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS or NYSDFS) is the department of the New York state government responsible for regulating financial services and products, including those subject to the New York insurance, banking and fina ...
. Following the bank failures, the Federal Reserve announced the creation of a Bank Term Funding Program to shore up liquidity for other at-risk banks.
Circle A circle is a shape consisting of all points in a plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the centre. Equivalently, it is the curve traced out by a point that moves in a plane so that its distance from a given point is const ...
, a peer-to-peer payments technology company that issues the
stablecoin Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies where the price is supposed to be pegged to a reference asset, which is either fiat money, exchange-traded commodities (such as precious metals or industrial metals), or another cryptocurrency. In theory, the p ...
USD Coin USD Coin (USDC) is a digital stablecoin pegged to the United States dollar. USD Coin is managed by a consortium called Centre, which was founded by Circle and includes members from the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and Bitcoin mining company ...
(USDC), attested that SVB is one of the six banking partners used by the company to manage its cash reserves for USDC, with $3.3 billion (approximately 8%) of its cash reserves held there. USDC's price fell below its US$1 pegged exchange rate during trading on March 10 and 11, causing
Coinbase Coinbase Global, Inc., branded Coinbase, is an American publicly traded company that operates a cryptocurrency exchange platform. Coinbase is a distributed company; all employees operate via remote work and the company lacks a physical headquar ...
to halt conversions between USDC and U.S. dollars. USDC had recovered most of the losses after Circle assured investors that the peg would remain honored. Investors and economists believe that a previously expected Federal Reserve interest rate increase on March 22 has become less likely as a result of the SVB collapse and other recent bank failures. The failure complicates an ongoing lobbying effort by large banks against the Federal Reserve's requirement that they hold cash equivalents to government-backed securities, such as the Treasury bonds that Silicon Valley Bank invested in.


Legal actions

On March 13, the
Federal Reserve Board of Governors The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, commonly known as the Federal Reserve Board, is the main governing body of the Federal Reserve System. It is charged with overseeing the Federal Reserve Banks and with helping implement the mon ...
announced an investigation by Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr into supervision and regulation of the bank, which will be released publicly by May 1. The
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...
and
U.S. Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...
have reportedly opened investigations into the bank's financial disclosures and executives' recent trading plans. On March 13, an SVB shareholder filed a
Securities Class Action A securities class action (SCA), or securities fraud class action, is a lawsuit filed by investors who bought or sold a company's publicly traded securities within a specific period of time (known as a “class period”) and suffered economic in ...
against the company in the
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California The United States District Court for the Northern District of California (in case citations, N.D. Cal.) is the federal United States district court whose jurisdiction comprises the following counties of California: Alameda, Contra Costa, Del ...
, alleging
fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compens ...
for false statements made by executives and the bank. Senator
Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Ann Warren ( née Herring; born June 22, 1949) is an American politician and former law professor who is the senior United States senator from Massachusetts, serving since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party and regarded as a ...
of Massachusetts introduced legislation, cosponsored by about 50 Democrats in the Senate and House of Representatives, that would roll back some provisions of the EGRRCPA, including regular stress testing. The
Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs The United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs (formerly the Committee on Banking and Currency), also known as the Senate Banking Committee, has jurisdiction over matters related to banks and banking, price controls, d ...
held a hearing on March 28 regarding the bank failures that focused on the Federal Reserve's oversight of banks. Former CEO Gregory W. Becker did not attend the hearing; Senators
Sherrod Brown Sherrod Campbell Brown (; born November 9, 1952) is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from Ohio, a seat which he has held since 2007. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the U.S. representative for Ohio's ...
and
Tim Scott Timothy Eugene Scott (born September 19, 1965) is an American businessman and politician serving as the junior United States senator from South Carolina since 2013. A member of the Republican Party, Scott was appointed to the U.S. Senate by Go ...
have asked him to appear before the committee at a later hearing.


Reactions


Official responses

U.S. President Joe Biden discussed the collapse with California Governor
Gavin Newsom Gavin Christopher Newsom (born October 10, 1967) is an American politician and businessman who has been the 40th governor of California since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 49th lieutenant governor of California fr ...
on March 11. In televised remarks from the
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
before markets opened on March 13, Biden expressed confidence in the resilience of the banking system, pledged that the government would ensure the availability of deposits without rewarding investors with taxpayer funds, and promised to hold bank executives accountable and propose rule changes to prevent future failures.
National Credit Union Administration The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) is a government-backed insurer of credit unions in the United States, one of two agencies that provide deposit insurance to depositors in U.S. depository institutions, the other being the Federa ...
board members emphasized the safety of the
credit union A credit union, a type of financial institution similar to a commercial bank, is a member-owned nonprofit organization, nonprofit financial cooperative. Credit unions generally provide services to members similar to retail banks, including depo ...
system in contrast to the banking system, but reiterated the importance of effective risk management, including the use of
interest rate derivative In finance, an interest rate derivative (IRD) is a derivative whose payments are determined through calculation techniques where the underlying benchmark product is an interest rate, or set of different interest rates. There are a multitude of diff ...
s, and urged Congress to strengthen the Central Liquidity Facility. Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu (; ; born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who served as the ninth prime minister of Israel from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009 to 2021. He is currently serving as Leader of the Opposition and Chairman of ...
pledged to take steps to help Israeli technology companies get through the liquidity crisis. Indian IT minister
Rajeev Chandrasekhar Rajeev Chandrasekhar (born 31 May 1964) is an Indian politician of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He is the incumbent Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and Electronics and Information Technology of India. He is also an ...
met with companies to assess the effect on India's startup community. UK Prime Minister
Rishi Sunak Rishi Sunak (; born 12 May 1980) is a British politician who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party since October 2022. He previously held two Cabinet of ...
, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary
Hirokazu Matsuno is a Japanese politician who currently serves as the Chief Cabinet Secretary since October 2021. He is serving in the House of Representatives as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party. Career A native of Kisarazu, Chiba and graduate of Was ...
, and South Korea's Financial Services Commission each downplayed any systemic risk to their countries' financial sectors.


Debate over government intervention

A group of 599 venture capitalists, including
Garry Tan Garry Tan (; born 1981) is the founder of Initialized Capital. He previously co-founded Posterous and Posthaven. He was also an early employee at Palantir Technologies, and a partner at Y Combinator. Early life and education Tan was born in 198 ...
and
David O. Sacks David Oliver Sacks (born 25 May 1972) is a South African American entrepreneur, author, and investor in internet technology firms. He is general partner of Craft Ventures, a venture capital fund he co-founded in late 2017. Previously, Sacks wa ...
, along with hedge fund manager
Bill Ackman William Albert Ackman (born May 11, 1966) is an American billionaire investor and hedge fund manager. He is the founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, a hedge fund management company. His investment approach makes him an activis ...
and California State Senator
Scott Wiener Scott Wiener (born May 11, 1970) is an American politician and a member of the California State Senate. A Democrat, he represents the 11th Senate District, encompassing San Francisco and parts of San Mateo County. Prior to his election to the ...
, called for a government intervention to protect uninsured depositors. Representatives
Ruben Gallego Rubén Marinelarena Gallego (; born November 20, 1979) is an American politician and U.S. Marine combat veteran, having served and deployed as a USMCR Corporal during Operation Iraqi Freedom, who is the U.S. Representative for Arizona's 7th con ...
of Arizona and
Eric Swalwell Eric Michael Swalwell (born November 16, 1980) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for California's 15th congressional district since 2013. His district covers most of eastern Alameda County and part of cent ...
of California called for depositors to be made whole, while Representatives
Ro Khanna Rohit Khanna (; born September 13, 1976) is an American politician, lawyer, and academic serving as the U.S. representative from California's 17th congressional district since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he defeated eight-term incumbe ...
and
Brad Sherman Bradley James Sherman (born October 24, 1954) is an American accountant and politician serving as the U.S. representative for California's 30th congressional district since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he first entered Congress in 19 ...
of California called on the Treasury Department and FDIC to affirm that depositors would be protected so they could make payroll. Khanna pointed to the 1991 collapse of the
Bank of New England The Bank of New England Corporation was a regional bank, regional banking institution based in Boston, Massachusetts, which was seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in 1991 as a result of heavy losses in its loan portfolio an ...
as precedent for rescuing a regional bank. Representative
Matt Gaetz Matthew Louis Gaetz II ( ; born May 7, 1982) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the U.S. representative for since 2017. A Republican, he has been described as an ally of former president Donald Trump, as well as a proponent ...
of Florida and Republican presidential candidates
Nikki Haley Nimrata Nikki Haley (née Randhawa; born January 20, 1972) is an American diplomat and politician who served as the 116th and first female governor of South Carolina from 2011 to 2017, and as the 29th United States ambassador to the United Na ...
and
Vivek Ramaswamy Vivek Ramaswamy (born August 9, 1985) is an American entrepreneur in the healthcare and technology sectors, a political commentator, and a ''New York Times'' bestselling author. In 2022, he founded Strive Asset Management and currently serves as t ...
expressed opposition to any taxpayer-funded bailout of the bank. Ramaswamy suggested that the FDIC's deposit insurance limit be raised instead. San Jose Mayor
Matt Mahan Matthew Mahan (born November 18, 1982) is an American politician and tech entrepreneur, now serving his first term on the San Jose City Council as the District 10 Councilmember representing the Almaden Valley, Blossom Valley, and Vista Par ...
also called the $250,000 limit "arcane". Governor Newsom, Senator
Kyrsten Sinema Kyrsten Lea Sinema (; born July 12, 1976) is an American politician and former social worker serving as the senior United States senator from Arizona since January 2019. A former member of the Democratic Party, Sinema became an independent in ...
of Arizona, and Representative
Anna Eshoo Anna A. Eshoo ( ; née Georges; born December 13, 1942) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative from . She is a member of the Democratic Party. The district, numbered as the 14th district from 1993 to 2013, is based in Silico ...
of California applauded the FDIC's announcement that it would protect depositors without affecting taxpayers via the Bank Term Funding Program. Mayor Mahan criticized the federal government's response to the bank's failure as slow and indicative of its misunderstanding of Silicon Valley startups' contribution to the national economy. Senators
Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Ann Warren ( née Herring; born June 22, 1949) is an American politician and former law professor who is the senior United States senator from Massachusetts, serving since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party and regarded as a ...
of Massachusetts and
Bill Hagerty William Francis Hagerty IV (born August 14, 1959) is an American politician, businessman, and former diplomat serving as the junior United States senator from Tennessee since 2021. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 30th U.S. am ...
of Tennessee criticized regulators for protecting large depositors, including some of the venture capital firms that triggered the bank run. Republican lawmakers and financial policy experts criticized the emergency actions as a bailout that could create a
moral hazard In economics, a moral hazard is a situation where an economic actor has an incentive to increase its exposure to risk because it does not bear the full costs of that risk. For example, when a corporation is insured, it may take on higher risk ...
at other banks. Senator
J. D. Vance James David Vance (born James Donald Bowman, August 2, 1984) is an American venture capitalist, author, and politician who is a United States senator-elect from Ohio, elected in 2022. A member of the Republican Party, he came to prominence with ...
of Ohio questioned whether the federal government would have taken similar action for a smaller bank or credit union. Economist
Paul Krugman Paul Robin Krugman ( ; born February 28, 1953) is an American economist, who is Distinguished Professor of Economics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and a columnist for ''The New York Times''. In 2008, Krugman was th ...
compared the failure and resulting government action to the savings and loan crisis. Economist
Dean Baker Dean Baker (born July 13, 1958) is an American macroeconomist who co-founded the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) with Mark Weisbrot. Baker has been credited as one of the first economists to have identified the 2007–08 United Sta ...
contrasted the broad agreement behind rescuing relatively sophisticated Silicon Valley business proprietors with the objections over moral hazard and personal responsibility to President Biden's
student loan A student loan is a type of loan designed to help students pay for post-secondary education and the associated fees, such as tuition, books and supplies, and living expenses. It may differ from other types of loans in the fact that the interest r ...
forgiveness program.
San Jose Chamber of Commerce The San Jose Chamber of Commerce (abbreviated SJCC), formerly known as the Silicon Valley Organization, is a chamber of commerce representing business interests in San Jose, California. It is the largest chamber of commerce in the Silicon Valley r ...
CEO
Derrick Seaver Derrick Seaver is an American politician who served as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives, representing the 78th District from 2001 to 2006. Early life and education Derrick Charles Seaver was born on February 6, 1982 in Oxford, Ohio ...
said any moral hazard was worth staving off the potential risk of allowing depositors to go unprotected. According to some experts, the government's quick reaction to the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, which had been viewed as having little significance outside of the technology sector until its failure, showed a fragile system addicted to injections of official support. Senator Warren, Representative Khanna, and Mayor Mahan called for earnings from CEO Greg Becker's recent sale of SVB shares to be clawed back and returned to depositors. Representative Eshoo criticized the last-minute bonuses given to bank employees as "highly offensive".


Debate about causes

Cryptocurrency proponents cited the collapse in support of a decentralized monetary system. Others in the tech sector proposed that recent events in the cryptocurrency business, such as the
bankruptcy of FTX The bankruptcy of FTX is the ongoing liquidation of Bahamas-based cryptocurrency exchange FTX, beginning in November 2022. The collapse of FTX, caused by a liquidity crisis of the company's token, FTT, served as the impetus for its bankruptcy. P ...
and the exit of cryptocurrency-focused banks, had conditioned depositors to panic and noted that the FDIC's limited guarantee had no parallel in cryptocurrency. Senator Warren, Representative Khanna, and Senator
Bernie Sanders Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Vermont since 2007. He was the U.S. representative for the state's at-large congressional district from 1991 to 2007 ...
of Vermont argued that the bank's failure could have been avoided by the stress testing that was required of banks of SVB's size until the passage of the EGRRCPA; they called for the law to be repealed and criticized Becker for having supported it. Warren and Senator
Richard Blumenthal Richard Blumenthal (; born February 13, 1946) is an American lawyer and politician who is the senior United States senator from Connecticut, a seat he has held since 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he is one of the wealthiest members of ...
of Connecticut asked the Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether senior bank executives had violated any laws. Senator
John Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...
of Louisiana criticized regulators for lax oversight of the bank. The
Bank Policy Institute The Bank Policy Institute (BPI) is an American financial services lobbying and advocacy organization, based in Washington, D.C. The Bank Policy Institute was formed in July 2018 by the merger of two older lobbying groups, the Financial Services ...
, which represents large banks, contended that the failures of SVB and Signature Bank were primarily caused by failures of management and supervision, rather than regulation, and stressed its members' resiliency. Several Republicans and conservative commentators arguedwithout evidencethat the bank failed because it was "
woke ''Woke'' ( ) is an adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) meaning "alert to racial prejudice and Racial discrimination, discrimination". Beginning in the 2010s, it came to encompass a broader awareness of social ineq ...
" and distracted by its workforce diversity efforts, which are typical of mid-sized and large banks in the U.S. Florida Governor
Ron DeSantis Ronald Dion DeSantis (; born September 14, 1978) is an American politician serving as the 46th governor of Florida since January 2019. A member of the Republican Party, DeSantis represented Florida's 6th district in the U.S. House of Represe ...
, Representative
Marjorie Taylor Greene Marjorie Taylor Greene (born May 27, 1974), also known by her initials MTG, is an American politician, businesswoman, and far-right conspiracy theorist Sources describing Greene as "far-right" include: * * * * * * * * * who has served as th ...
of Georgia, and
Tucker Carlson Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson (born May 16, 1969) is an American television host, conservative political commentator and writer who has hosted the nightly political talk show ''Tucker Carlson Tonight'' on Fox News since 2016. Carlson began h ...
tied the bank's failure to its
diversity, equity, and inclusion Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is a conceptual framework claims to promote the fair treatment and full participation of all people, especially in the workplace, including populations who have historically been under-represented or subject ...
(DEI) program. Greene and Representative James Comer of Kentucky cited the bank's
environmental, social, and corporate governance ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) data reflect the negative externalities (costs to others) caused by an organization with respect to the environment, to society and to corporate governance. ESG data can be used by investor ...
investment program. Senator
Tim Scott Timothy Eugene Scott (born September 19, 1965) is an American businessman and politician serving as the junior United States senator from South Carolina since 2013. A member of the Republican Party, Scott was appointed to the U.S. Senate by Go ...
of South Carolina implied that the San Francisco Fed overlooked risks at the bank due to a shared focus on climate change. Andy Kessler suggested that the presence of minorities and military veterans on the bank's board of directors served as a distraction. The ''
New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...
'' blamed the DEI efforts of a manager at the UK subsidiary for the risks that arose in the U.S. An allegation spread in conservative media that SVB had donated over $73 million to the "BLM Movement & Related Causes," citing a database that had been created by a conservative organization to purportedly show "who funded the BLM riots." Analysis by ''
Talking Points Memo ''Talking Points Memo'' (''TPM'') is a liberal political news and opinion website created and run by Josh Marshall that debuted on November 12, 2000. The name is a reference to the memo (short list) consisting of the issues (points) discussed by ...
'' found the database actually showed corporate donations to a variety of diversity programs that had no apparent relationship to the
Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police bruta ...
movement. The ''
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
'' also investigated claims that the collapse was caused by a "woke agenda" and found that there was no evidence to support the claims. Representative
Nancy Mace Nancy Ruth Mace (born December 4, 1977) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for South Carolina's 1st congressional district since 2021. Her district includes much of the state's share of the East Coast, from Charleston t ...
of South Carolina criticized other members of Congress for politicizing the bank's failure and urged caution in making public comments that could affect the market.


See also

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List of bank failures in the United States (2008–present) The Financial crisis of 2007–2008 led to a lot of bank failures in the United States. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) closed 465 failed banks from 2008 to 2012. In contrast, in the five years prior to 2008, only 10 banks failed. ...
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March 2023 United States bank failures Over the course of five days in March 2023, three small- to mid-size U.S. banks failed, triggering a sharp decline in global bank stock prices and swift response by regulators to prevent potential global financial contagion, contagion. Silverga ...
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Acquisition of Credit Suisse by UBS On 19 March 2023, Swiss investment bank UBS Group AG agreed to buy Credit Suisse for billion ( billion) in an all-stock deal brokered by the government of Switzerland and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority. The Swiss Nation ...
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Bank regulation in the United States Bank regulation in the United States is highly fragmented compared with other G10 countries, where most countries have only one bank regulator. In the U.S., banking is regulated at both the federal and state level. Depending on the type of cha ...
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Deposit insurance Deposit insurance or deposit protection is a measure implemented in many countries to protect bank depositors, in full or in part, from losses caused by a bank's inability to pay its debts when due. Deposit insurance systems are one component of ...


References

{{2023 United States bank failures 2023 in California 2023 in economics
Silicon Valley Bank Silicon Valley Bank is an American commercial bank. SVB is on the list of largest banks in the United States, and is the biggest bank in Silicon Valley based on local deposits. It is a subsidiary of SVB Financial Group. History Silicon Valley Ba ...
Economic history of California Economy of Santa Clara, California History of Silicon Valley March 2023 events in the United States 2023 in technology