Feds move to protect ‘all’ SVG deposits
No depositor will see a loss due to the collapse of one of the country’s largest banks, the Treasury and central bank said in a joint statement Sunday night in an attempt contain a burgeoning financial crisis that also saw authorities seize a second institution ahead of Monday’s market bell.
“Today we are taking decisive actions to protect the U.S. economy by strengthening public confidence in our banking system. This step will ensure that the U.S. banking system continues to perform its vital roles of protecting deposits and providing access to credit to households and businesses in a manner that promotes strong and sustainable economic growth,” The Federal Reserve, Department of the Treasury and FDIC said in a Sunday statement.
“Depositors will have access to all of their money starting Monday, March 13,” the statement continued. “No losses associated with the resolution of Silicon Valley Bank will be borne by the taxpayer.”
On Friday, in response to terrified depositors suddenly pulling their money from collapsing California based Silicon Valley Bank, which serviced mostly tech startups, the federal government intervened to protect those assets that remained to what was the 16th largest bank in the country.
Hundreds of billions in assets hung in limbo, according to reporting, after it was revealed around 97% of the bank’s deposits were in accounts exceeding the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation’s $250,000 worth of protections.
Silicon Valley Bank’s sudden failure represents the worst banking collapse since Washington Mutual failed during the 2008 financial crisis, when the federal government intervened to prevent the implosion of some of the nation’s largest financial institutions through the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Fear was evident on Wall Street to close the week, as stocks slid on anxiety over an anticipated increase in interest rates and following the worst U.S. bank collapse in a decade and a half.
Also on Sunday, New York authorities shuttered Signature Bank, citing “systemic risk.”
“All depositors of this institution will be made whole,” the feds said in the same joint statement, asserting again that, “As with the resolution of Silicon Valley Bank, no losses will be borne by the taxpayer.”
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen earlier had said that the federal government would not bail out the bank, but would work with depositors to help them recover their funds.
“We’re not going to do that again,” she said on CBS’ Face the Nation. “But we are concerned about depositors, and we’re focused on trying to meet their needs.”
Yellen said that the situation now is different than it was 2008, most notably that the financial system has been rebuilt to avoid what occurred then.
“The American banking system is really safe and well capitalized,” she said. “It’s resilient.”
Bill Ackman, CEO of New York City based Pershing Square Capital Management, predicted the government would need to intervene to protect depositors and to prevent a run other banks like SVB.
“By allowing SVB to fail without protecting all depositors, the world has woken up to what an uninsured deposit is — an unsecured illiquid claim on a failed bank,” Ackman wrote on Twitter.
Gov. Maura Healey, in a Sunday statement, said she has spoken to federal regulators about the impact of the bank’s closure on Massachusetts’ tech sector.
“Our administration is actively working to support individuals and businesses affected by SVB’s closure and to find solutions to help them address immediate needs, including putting supports in place to ensure that small businesses and employees do not experience significant disruptions,” Healey said.
The central bank announced it would make $25 billion available to other at risk institutions through a new Bank Term Funding Program offering one year loans to prevent them from needing to liquidate federal bonds while inflation and interest rates remain high.
Herald wire services contributed.