What happened next?
By Friday afternoon, regulators intervened to stabilize the situation. The FDIC placed SVB into receivership, taking charge of the bank and its assets. Insured depositors, those with deposit balances up to $250,000, were to have full access to their deposits as of Monday morning. At the time, the question remained what would happen to those clients of the bank with uninsured deposits. This set off a panic among the tech start-up community that feared it would be unable to support the ongoing operations of their businesses without access to their deposits – would they be able to meet payroll or pay suppliers? The concern in the tech sector reached a fever pitch, while fears of spreading contagion among other smaller or regional banking institutions persisted.
Over the weekend, in response to a building crisis, the Biden Administration, the FDIC, and the Federal Reserve moved to contain the fallout. First, financial regulators in the US set up a backstop to protect all depositors, both insured and uninsured, of SVB and Signature Bank. The latter was also taken over by regulators in NY on Friday as it suffered its own battle with rapid deposit withdrawals. This move protects all depositors of both banks, but not bondholders or equity investors. As per regulatory guidelines, any losses to the Deposit Insurance Fund to support uninsured depositors will be recovered by a special assessment of the banks. These measures should help stem the risk of new runs on uninsured deposits at other banks while mitigating risks of spillovers to the real economy.
Separately, the Fed announced that it was creating a separate Bank Term Funding Program to ensure adequate liquidity to banks. This program offers banks loans of up to one year against high-quality, liquid assets (typically US Treasuries or mortgage bonds), with collateral valued at part. This is important as banks typically were required to take a haircut on collateral when they approach the Fed discount window. This new facility, which comes with better terms and less stigma, enables banks to raise liquidity to meet depositor demands without selling off bond holdings at a loss – as SVB did last week.
And finally, on Monday, the FDIC transferred SVB assets to a new bridge bank, Silicon Valley Bank, N.A. The FDIC named Tim Mayopoulus, former head of Fannie Mae, as the CEO of the bridge bank as SVB’s senior management was removed once regulators intervened.
Where do we go from here?
Well, there are clearly ongoing ripple effects from the SVB failure. First, banks in the US and the world took a hit last week on the sudden shock of a large U.S. player imploding almost overnight. However, since the Global Financial Crisis, large banks in the US have been subject to strict capital requirements, which are regulatory standards requiring banks to maintain adequate levels of liquid capital, assets they can sell easily, relative to their holdings. These requirements, which are particularly stringent for larger banks considered “too big to fail,” are meant to keep banks solvent and to keep the financial system healthy. Large banks in the U.S. are recognized as well-capitalized and are regularly stress tested to ensure they are meeting regulatory standards. This prevents a situation like SVB’s blow-up from infecting the entire system. However, U.S. legislation allows for smaller, often regional or community banks, considered less critical to the system based on the size of consolidated assets, to face less stringent requirements. This “tailored” approach to regulation has been called into question in the past and will likely draw attention again given the events of last week, especially if volatility among bank stock, particularly regional players, persists.
Considering the sector more broadly speaking, banks are experiencing pressure on deposits as customers are looking for higher yields in a rising interest rate environment. This is leading certain banks to increase yields they pay on deposits. Another way of putting this is banks are facing increasing pressure on funding costs. At the same time, banks that increased exposure to longer-duration bonds during the pandemic are also subject to the impact of rising interest rates on their portfolios. If banks sell a portion of these portfolios before the underlying securities reach maturity, they will realize losses on these exposures. Both higher funding costs and lower valuation on bond portfolios will weigh on the outlook for bank earnings.
Are there spillover risks to global banks and the global economy?
In terms of global macro, on balance, Eurasia Group expects that in the absence of further material financial stress, the Fed will go ahead and raise rates by 25 basis points at its next meeting on March 22. But the tightening of financial and credit conditions could prove sharp and disruptive, and the financial stability risks will not go unnoticed by central banks around the world. This might temper the appetite for continuing to tighten rapidly. The next watchpoint in this regard will be the European Central Bank, which meets on March 16.
