{"id":145167,"date":"2023-04-06T12:14:21","date_gmt":"2023-04-06T06:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.regenesys.net\/reginsights\/?p=145167"},"modified":"2025-11-18T16:25:45","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T10:55:45","slug":"the-failure-of-silicon-valley-bank-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regenesys.net\/reginsights\/the-failure-of-silicon-valley-bank-explained","title":{"rendered":"The Failure of Silicon Valley Bank – Explained\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
March 2023 saw the failure of America\u2019s 16<\/span>th<\/span> largest bank, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), who provided banking services to corporate clients doing business in venture-backed technology and science companies. Understanding why this collapse happened is an excellent case study into how the financial system as a whole works.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When the economy and the banking system are running normally, banks use their clients’ deposits to either lend to other parties in order to earn interest on those loans, or they invest the funds in other assets with the goal of earning a return. If anything causes the depositors to suddenly withdraw substantial amounts of money from the bank, this may lead to a liquidity crisis for the bank if the majority of its funds are tied into such investments or loans and they are not liquid (meaning the bank cannot get those funds back on short notice). This causes a snow-ball effect known as a \u201crun-on-the-banks,\u201d where other clients of the bank also start demanding to withdraw their funds, not because they need it, but because they believe they may not get access to their funds when they do need it as they have lost trust in the bank.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Following the 2008 financial market collapse, regulations and policies in the US were amended, forcing banks to enhance and improve their internal risk management systems by keeping more funds in liquid, lower risk investments as a buffer for such liquidity demands. This of course meant that banks were less profitable as liquid investments, associated with lower risk, deliver lower returns. These enhanced risk management requirements are also costly as more people need to be employed to ensure the bank complies with the regulatory requirements.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In 2018, the Trump administration rolled back these strict liquidity requirements for smaller and mid-tier banks, which included SVB. These de-regulation reforms meant SVB could, like the other small and medium banks, take on more risk with the deposits made by clients to enhance their growth. They especially took advantage of these relaxed regulations during the near-zero interest rate period in 2020 and 2021 (arising because of the Covid-19 pandemic), when most investments delivered lower returns for the same amount of risk taken.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Let us quickly break down this concept. As explained above, investors that deposit money with a bank, carry the risk that they may not be able to withdraw the funds when they need them. In exchange for this risk, the bank pays them interest which is linked to the repo rate \u2013 so if the repo rate goes down so also will the interest that they earn from the bank. This lower return via interest on their deposit does not, however, mean that the risk of the bank not being able to repay the funds is lower. In order for the investor to get the same return as before reserve banks lowered interest rates, they will have to increase their investment risk. Remember the golden rule \u2013 returns increase when risk increases.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n During this period of lowered interest rates, SVB moved assets into higher risk investments to earn returns that matched their pre-covid returns \u2013 and they could, because regulations did not restrict them from doing so. They did so by increasing their exposure to longer-term government bonds since longer-term bonds carry higher risk. This is because a longer investment period means there are more uncertainties associated with the investment and therefore more risks.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Fast forward to March of 2022 and the Federal Reserve Bank started to hike interest rates as a measure to manage rising inflation. When interest rates increase, bond prices in the secondary market fall. This happens because when interest rates rise, newly issued bonds offer higher yields, making them more attractive to investors than older bonds issued at previously lower rates. This causes the demand for older bonds to decrease, leading to a decline in their prices in the secondary market.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe Normal Functioning of Banks<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nThe Trump administration’s rollbacks<\/h3>\n
The effect of interest rate hikes on bond prices<\/h3>\n