[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text dp_text_size=”size-4″]On Friday, the startup-focused lender SVB Financial Group (SIVB.O) experienced a dramatic collapse that rocked the world’s financial markets and left billions of assets belonging to businesses and investors stranded. This made it the largest bank to fail since the 2008 financial crisis.
The bank, which operated under the name Silicon Valley Bank, was shut down by California banking regulators on Friday and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was named as receiver for a subsequent sale of its assets.
Based in Santa Clara, the lender was ranked as the 16th biggest in the U.S. at the end of last year, with about $209 billion in assets. Specifics of the tech-focused bank’s abrupt collapse were a jumble, but the Fed’s aggressive interest rate hikes in the last year, which had crimped financial conditions in the start-up space in which it was a notable player, seemed front and center.
As it tried to raise capital to offset fleeing deposits, the bank lost $1.8 billion on Treasury bonds whose values were torpedoed by the Fed rate hikes
The fall of Silicon Valley Bank is the biggest since the collapse of Washington Mutual in 2008, a pivotal event that set off a financial crisis that hampered the economy for years. The 2008 financial crisis led to stricter regulations in the US and abroad.
Since then, regulators have established stricter capital requirements for American banks in an effort to ensure that individual bank failures won’t have a negative impact on the economy and larger financial system.
The main office and all branches of Silicon Valley Bank will reopen on March 13 and all insured depositors will have full access to their insured deposits no later than Monday morning, the FDICsaid.
But 89% of the bank’s $175 billion in deposits were uninsured as the end of 2022, according to the FDIC, and their fate remains to be determined.
According to persons familiar with the situation who asked to remain anonymous because the specifics are classified, the FDIC is reportedly rushing to locate another bank over the weekend that is willing to merge with Silicon Valley Bank. The sources stated that while the FDIC wants to put together such a merger by Monday to protect unsecured deposits, nothing is guaranteed.
Requests for comment from the FDIC were not immediately answered by a spokeswoman.
Also read: South Korean businesses “on the verge of shutting down”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
