The US government took extraordinary steps on Sunday after the historic failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), assuring depositors(存款人) at the institution that they would be able to quickly access all of their money. The announcement came amid fears that the factors that caused the California-based bank to fail could cause a banking contagion(漫延), and only a couple of hours before trading opened on Asian markets.
The Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) said on Sunday that all SVB clients will be protected-including accounts that exceed the FDIC-insured limit of $250,000. "Depositors will have access to all of their money starting on Monday, March 13. No losses associated with the resolution of Silicon Valley Bank will be borne by the taxpayers," the agencies said in a joint statement. "This step will ensure that the US banking system continues to perform its vital roles in protecting deposits and providing access to the money deposited in the bank for households and businesses in a manner that promotes strong and sustainable economic growth."
Regulators had worked over the weekend to try to come up with a buyer for SVB, the second-largest bank failure in history. Those efforts appeared to have come up empty as of Sunday.
The regulators also announced that the New York-based Signature Bank had failed and its property was taken on Sunday. At more than $110 billion in assets(资产), Signature Bank is now the third-largest bank failure in US history. The officials also said that depositors at the bank, which was closed on Sunday by the New York state financial regulator, would not bear the loss. Signature's shareholders and unsecured debtors will not be protected, and management has been removed, the officials said.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had said earlier on Sunday that she was working with banking regulators to respond after SVB became the largest bank to fail since the 2008 financial crisis, during which Washington Mutual collapsed. SVB had $ 209 billion in assets and $175.4 billion in deposits at the time of failure, the FDIC said in a statement. The bank mostly served technological companies. "We want to make sure that the troubles that exist at one bank don't create contagion to others," Yellen told CBS' Face the Nation.
