Public pension funds lose over $30M in bank collapse

Ohio’s public pension systems collectively lost tens of millions of dollars invested in Silicon Valley Bank of California and Signature Bank of New York, two of the largest banks to fail in U.S. history.

Ohio’s State Teachers Retirement System took the biggest hit. Last week, it had SVB shares worth $27.2 million, which represents 0.03% of the fund’s total portfolio. It did not own shares of Signature.

Last week, Ohio Public Employees Retirement System held shares in SVB worth $3.2 million and shares in Signature worth $2.2 million. That $5.4 million represents 0.0058% of OPERS’ $92.5 billion investment portfolio.

The Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund didn’t own SVB shares but it had indirect exposure to the crisis via the Russell 1000 Index Fund. The police and fire fund estimates it lost $320,000.

The School Employees Retirement System, which serves bus drivers, cafeteria workers and other nonteacher staff, calculated that it lost $929,000 in the bank fiasco. That represents 0.01% of its $17 billion investment portfolio.

The public pension systems serve nearly 2 million employees, retirees and former government workers. Public employees in Ohio don’t contribute to Social Security so the public pensions represent their main retirement funds.

Silicon Valley Bank announced last Wednesday it had suffered a $1.8 billion after-tax loss and needed to raise more capital to calm depositors’ concerns. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation took over the bank after failed attempts to sell it to healthier banks.