Silicon Valley Bet It Could Avoid the Costs of Managing Banking Risk. It Won That Bet.
(Article by John Carney republished from Breitbart.com)
Silicon Valley essentially put the cost of ordinary corporate treasury prudence onto the banking system and got rewarded for it when the government broke its own rules and agreed to back even the largest deposits at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).
In a joint statement, the Treasury, Federal Reserve, and the FDIC announced that all deposits at SVB and Signature Bank would be made whole. To accomplish this, the regulators declared that the failure of the banks posed “systemic risk” and therefore qualified for an exception to the usual limits on deposit insurance.
Does this qualify as a bailout? The official statement was clear in saying that “shareholders and certain unsecured debtholders” would not be protected and that senior management would be removed. The shareholders are likely to lose all of their investment, and holders of bonds issued by the banks may be zeroed out as well. It’s possible they could be in for some recovery if the banks’ assets prove to be more than enough to pay off depositors, but that is likely a long way off and will certainly involve some losses.
So, this is not quite a 2008-style bailout. In that instance, equity holders were heavily diluted when the government used the TARP funds to buy preferred equity stakes. But they did not see the value of their stock go to zero. They were allowed to participate in the recovery of the companies. Holders of debts issued by the financial institutions were almost universally made whole. On the other hand, the move definitely bails out depositors who had more than $250,000 at the banks. In the ordinary course, these depositors would have received an emergency dividend payment sometime this week and certificates entitling them to funds from the sales of assets of the bank. If a bank’s assets can be sold quickly and for a price that exceeds the deposit liabilities, there might not be any impairment beyond a small delay. So far as can be seen from public disclosures, it is likely that Silicon Valley Bank’s depositors would have eventually been made whole—or nearly so.It’s more than likely that some of our largest banks have looked back at what happened after 2008 and decided it is not worth the risk of buying a large, failed bank’s assets even at fire sale prices. Jamie Dimon, the chief executive and chairman of JPMorgan Chase, has said he regretted buying Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual in 2008 because the liabilities associated with those two banks were responsible for something like 70 percent of the $19 billion in fines, penalties, and buybacks his bank was forced to make. “We did not anticipate that we would have to pay the penalties we ultimately were required to pay,” Jamie Dimon wrote in a 2015 letter to JPMorgan shareholders. He went on to say that he doubts if his board would allow him to make similar acquisitions given that experience.SCOOP: A former SVB exec tells @FoxBusiness that the bank’s loan book was so risky it shouldn’t have been @FDICgov insured; SVB’s lending including loans to VC backed cos w low or no profits and credit lines to PE funds more now w @LizClaman
— Charles Gasparino (@CGasparino) March 13, 2023
2018 Letter from Cohen’s attorney could compromise DA Bragg’s indictment of Trump
By Ramon Tomey // Share
More than 376M SCAM messages sent daily to steal money, clone voices of Americans
By Kevin Hughes // Share
PBI founder Ellen Brown says FEAR causes bank runs
By Belle Carter // Share
Texas border sector reports 10K known border crossers in single week
By News Editors // Share
Huge strikes planned across Germany while France unravels: The European spring has come
By Ethan Huff // Share
Debunking McGill's "dirty dozen" hit piece: Flawed sources, pharma ties, and biased reporting
By newseditors // Share
Your lyin' eyes: Corporate media panics with 'fact checks' over Biden's obvious decline
By newseditors // Share