The Failure of Silicon Valley Bank: Its Causes and Repercussions

The failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) on March 10, 2023, with over $200 billion in assets, was the 2nd largest bank failure in U.S. history and the largest since Washington Mutual Bank failed in 2008. SVB’s failure and the contemporaneous failure of Signature Bank sparked contagious depositor runs at several banks prompting the federal regulators to invoke a systemic risk exception and guarantee all SVB and Signature Bank deposits. Paul Kupiec will discuss the causes behind the failure of SVB, including problems with federal regulatory oversight, and the systemic repercussions across the banking sector.