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"I believe it was a series of unprecedented events that all came together in the fastest bank run in history," Becker told the Senate Banking Committee. "I was the CEO of Silicon Valley Bank, I take responsibility for what ultimately happened," Becker said. Executives from Signature Bank also testified alongside Becker on Tuesday, pushing back on assertions from lawmakers that the bank had weak corporate governance. "I don't believe that there was mismanagement at the bank," said Eric Howell, the former president of Signature Bank. The bank tried to cover the loss by raising capital, but in announcing the transaction helped fuel a bank run.

☆ Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway adds Capital One and these other stocks to holdings
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Yun Li | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway made a slew of changes to its massive equity portfolio last quarter, including adding a financial stock during the latest banking crisis, according to a new regulatory filing. The Omaha-based conglomerate built a new stake in Capital One Financial in the first quarter, worth more than $950 million, the filing showed. Apple, Activision and more Berkshire hiked its two biggest holdings - Apple and Bank of America - slightly in the first quarter. Buffett said at Berkshire annual meeting that "it's not good news when any company passes its dividend, or cuts its dividend dramatically." Outside of top holdings, Berkshire added a small stake - worth about $40 million - in Diageo , a British alcoholic beverage company.

May 15 (Reuters) - Greg Becker, the former chief executive officer of Silicon Valley Bank, is set to appear before the U.S. Congress on Tuesday, two months after the collapse of his bank sparked panic among bank customers and investors, forcing the government to backstop deposits. California banking regulators moved quickly to shut down Silicon Valley Bank on March 10 after depositors withdrew $42 billion in 24 hours. Becker will testify before the Senate Banking Committee alongside Scott Shay and Eric Howell, the former chair and president, respectively, of Signature Bank. When his manager left to work for Silicon Valley Bank, Becker followed, he said on a 2021 Bloomberg podcast. Before becoming president and CEO of SVB Financial Group, Becker co-founded SVB Capital, the company's investment arm.

☆ G7 agreed global financial system resilient but needs vigilance, Japan finmin says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] Japan's Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki, Germany's Finance Minister Christian Lindner, Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt, Joachim Nagel, President of Germany's federal reserve... Read moreNIIGATA, Japan, May 13 (Reuters) - Finance ministers and central banks from the Group of Seven rich nations agreed the global financial system is resilient but the need for vigilance remains, Japan's finance minister Shunichi Suzuki said on Saturday. "We reaffirm that our financial system is resilient, supported by the financial regulatory reforms implemented after the 2008 global financial crisis, including considerable increases in the levels of bank capital and liquidity, an international framework for effectively resolving failing institutions, and strengthened cross-border regulatory and supervisory cooperation," it said. British finance minister Jeremy Hunt told reporters at a separate event that G7 finance chiefs in Japan had "very frank and open discussions" about the challenges they face, including banking regulation. The ministers have wrapped up a three-day meeting in the Japanese city of Niigata. Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto and Leika Kihara; Writing by David Dolan Editing by Shri NavaratnamOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ U.S. prosecutors look at short selling in bank shares - source
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Chris Prentice | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

NEW YORK, May 10 (Reuters) - Federal prosecutors in Washington are looking into short seller activity around the recent volatility in U.S. bank shares sparked by the failure of three regional lenders since March, a source familiar with the matter said. Short sellers arrange to borrow shares they consider overvalued and sell them in the hopes that if the price drops they can repurchase them for less and pocket the difference. Critics say short sellers hurt companies, but short sellers and advocates say they act as an important check on public firms. Since at least 2021, the Justice Department and the SEC have been investigating potential manipulation by short sellers and hedge funds around the publication of negative research reports. The source did not say whether the latest interest in bank stocks was related to that pre-existing probe.

☆ How a U.S. Debt Default Could Bring Down the Dollar - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Mike Lofgren | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

So they might also consider another potential scenario: Ever since President Richard Nixon de-linked the dollar from gold, doomsayers have predicted the imminent demise of the dollar as the world reserve currency. Having the world reserve currency has allowed the United States to run very large budget, merchandise trade and current account deficits for decades. Nations with dollar surpluses can’t sit on them; they recycle them as investments in the United States. That is why New York has the most liquid financial markets in the world. These strong markets in turn encourage many foreign central banks to hold their assets in New York as well.

☆ Credit card companies need to explain the 'exorbitant' late fees they're charging customers, says Elizabeth Warren
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Ethan Dodd | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants to know if credit card companies stand with the banks. Currently, credit card companies are permitted to fine consumers up to $41 for each missed credit card payment — no questions asked. The other nine credit card companies Warren sent the letter to did not immediately reply to a request for comment. She wanted to know why reducing credit card late fees would be any different. Warren also asked each credit card company to answer how much money they collect in credit card fees each year — and the proportion from low-income earners — and the actual cost of collecting those fees.

☆ Banks Are in the Grips of Investor Crisis of Confidence
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Telis Demos | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WSJ’s Ben Eisen explains what the bank’s crisis means for customers, investors and the industry. Illustration: Preston JesseeFirst Republic Bank ’s seizure and sale to JPMorgan Chase was supposed to be a cathartic moment for American banks, the denouement of the financial system’s latest crisis of confidence. The relief lasted for barely a day. On Tuesday, shares of regional banks were plunging, with a handful of them dropping by double-digit percentages. At one point on Thursday, the KBW Nasdaq Regional Banking Index was down by 15% from the prior week, though it rallied back on Friday to finish the week down 8%.

☆ Warren Buffett says American banks could face more turbulence ahead, but deposits are safe
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( Hugh Son | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Buffett, when asked about the recent tumult that led to the collapse of three mid-sized institutions since March, launched into a lengthy diatribe about the matter. In the early 1990s, Buffett served as CEO of Salomon Brothers, helping rehabilitate the Wall Street firm's tattered reputation. The core problem, as Buffett sees it, is that the public doesn't understand that their bank deposits are safe, even those that are uninsured. Meanwhile, Buffett said that he keeps his personal funds at a local institution, and isn't worried despite exceeding the threshold for FDIC coverage. "The messaging has been very poor, it's been poor by the politicians who sometimes have an interest in having it poor," he said.

☆ JPMorgan's Dimon reportedly making first mainland China visit in four years
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Jamie Dimon, chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase, is planning his first visit to mainland China in four years as the American bank prepares to host three conferences in Shanghai at the end of May. The visit is Dimon's first to mainland China since the pandemic gathered pace in 2020 and closed the world's second-largest economy for almost three years as it enforced some of the world's most stringent restrictions. He will also visit Hong Kong in early June after the Shanghai trip, two of the sources added. Dimon visited the Asian financial hub of Hong Kong to meet the bank's staff and clients in November 2021. A JPMorgan spokesperson in Hong Kong declined to comment on Dimon's visit to mainland China and Hong Kong.

☆ U.S. bankers urge SEC to probe short sales, reduce 'abusive' trading
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Andrea Shalal | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

"We urge the SEC to consider all its existing tools and to take measures to reduce the avenues for abusive trading practices and restore investor confidence," the group said. "These measures include, at a minimum, a clear message and appropriate enforcement actions against market manipulation and other abusive short selling practices." Short sellers raked in $378.9 million in paper profits on Thursday alone from betting against certain regional banks, according to analytics firm Ortex. ABA President and CEO Rob Nichols told Gensler that short selling could be a legitimate financial tool, but his group was "unalterably opposed to short selling practices that distort the markets through manipulation and abuse." He called on Gensler to send a clear message to market players and take appropriate enforcement action against market manipulation and other abusive short selling practices.

☆ US officials are looking into possible market manipulation of regional bank stocks
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Carla Mozée | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

US and state officials are assessing whether market manipulation is driving volatility in regional bank stocks, Reuters reported. A banking association is asking the SEC to stop short-bets on bank stocks. The Securities and Exchange Commission calls market manipulation "intentional or willful conduct designed to deceive or defraud investors by controlling or artificially affecting the price of securities." The American Bankers Association is urging the SEC to stop short bets in regional bank stocks. Short sellers pulled in nearly $400 million on Thursday from the sell-off in regional bank stocks, according to data from financial analytics platform Ortex.

☆ Apple and fintechs like Robinhood chase yield-hungry depositors as Fed rate hikes continue
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Rohan Goswami | In Rohangoswamicnbc | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

Last month, the iPhone maker launched its Apple Card savings account with a generous 4.15% APY in partnership with Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs . "It's really a trade-off for consumers, between safety or the appearance of safety, and yield," Laplanche told CNBC. Still, the emerging group of high-yield savings products are much more mainstream than what the crypto platforms were promoting. SoFi launched its high-yield savings account in February of last year. In its annual SEC filing, the company said that offering checking and high-yield savings accounts provided "more daily interactions with our members."

☆ Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting is here: What to expect from Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Yun Li | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Warren Buffett is set to kick off Berkshire Hathaway 's annual shareholder meeting Saturday before tens of thousands of adoring shareholders. Berkshire's annual "Woodstock for Capitalists" will be held in Omaha, Nebraska, the second straight in-person gathering after two virtual meetings during the pandemic. The question of Buffett's Activision stake is expected to come up at the annual meeting. Geico Berkshire shareholders will also be eager to learn more about what's next for auto insurer Geico , the crown jewel of Berkshire's insurance empire and Buffett's "favorite child." ESG issues There are a few ESG-related shareholder proposals being put to a vote at the annual meeting, including requiring Berkshire to publish an annual assessment of climate-related risks and publish data on its workforce composition by gender, race, and ethnicity.

The latest case in point: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) chose JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) as the winning bidder in an auction to buy collapsed lender First Republic Bank on Monday. FDIC officials, however, say would-be buyers risk losing out if they allow the value of an acquisition target to deteriorate over time while waiting for an FDIC receivership. SWEETENERSU.S. bank mergers were already sluggish as interest rates rose and recession loomed, analysts at Raymond James wrote in an Apr. The first quarter was the quietest opening to a year for bank deals in a generation, they said. Market volatility stops bank buyers from pulling together enough money to cover writedowns on struggling assets, which would be triggered by a traditional acquisition, said David Sandler, co-head of financial services investment banking at Piper Sandler Companies (PIPR.N).

☆ Talk of banning short sales is suddenly in the air, but history argues against it
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Bob Pisani | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

It's just a hop, skip and a jump away from the obvious conclusion: ban short sellers! There are already rules to prevent violation of short selling rules Fortunately, the SEC has not (at least yet) jumped on this bandwagon. Gensler, however, has made it clear he is looking out for bad actors who may be violating existing laws on short selling. For example, there are rules that prohibit naked short selling , the practice of short selling shares that haven't first been borrowed. When short selling is banned, traders who want to buy stock but need to hedge their risk will be hesitant to do so."

☆ Banks ask SEC to stop short-seller attacks on their stocks driven by social-media speculation
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Ryan Hogg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A leading banking group called for the SEC to do more to stop speculative short selling in bank stocks. The American Banking Section said social-media speculation about banks was disconnected from their financial reality. "ABA is, however, unalterably opposed to short selling practices that distort the markets through manipulation and abuse," he said. Nichols called for the SEC to take a clearer stance against what he called market manipulation and abusive short selling practices. "The harm caused by short selling that runs counter to economic fundamentals ultimately falls on small investors, who see value destroyed by others' predatory behavior."

[1/2] Block Inc logo is seen displayed in this illustration taken, April 10, 2023. Shares of Block, formerly called Square, rose more than 4% in extended trading on Thursday. Prior to market close, its stock was down more than 10% from the beginning of this year. Block has denied the allegations and has said it would explore legal action against the short seller. Short sellers like Hindenburg typically sell borrowed securities and aim to buy these back at a lower price.

☆ Almost 50% of Americans say they worry about their money being safe with a bank as shares of regional lenders plunge amid deposit outflows
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Carla Mozée | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Nearly half of Americans are worried about the safety of their cash in banks and other financial institutions, Gallup said Thursday. But 20% said they were "not worried at all" about their cash, and 30% considered themselves "not too worried." The study was conducted throughout April after Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank imploded in March. But its message didn't soothe those trading regional bank stocks on Thursday. Regional bank stocks plunged, with PacWest Bancorp sliding nearly 50% following a Bloomberg report the Beverly Hills-based lender is weighing strategic options, including a breakup or a sale to a larger rival.

☆ Loews CEO James Tisch uses a famous Warren Buffett quote to explain the banking fiasco - and warns more lenders may get into trouble.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Theron Mohamed | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Loews CEO James Tisch used a colorful Warren Buffett quote to describe the recent banking chaos. Tisch warned of more turmoil ahead, and urged the Fed to pause its rate hikes for three months. "As Warren Buffett says, 'When the tide goes out, you see who was swimming without a bathing suit,'" Tisch said. If authorities hadn't intervened, they risked a "full-fledged banking catastrophe" and a "massive, uncontrolled bank scare" with huge repercussions, he continued. However, Tisch warned of more trouble ahead.

☆ Top banking CEO warns of further volatility and predicts more U.S. rescues
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Silvia Amaro | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

A top banking executive highlighted a possible divergence in fortunes for the finance sector in both Europe and the U.S., suggesting that more rescues of American regional lenders are likely. "In the U.S., it is about distressed banks being rescued, I don't see any distressed bank being rescued in Europe," Andrea Orcel, the CEO of UniCredit, told CNBC's Joumanna Bercetche Wednesday. JPMorgan on Monday acquired a substantial majority of assets of First Republic, which included about $92 billion of deposits. Leading economists have told CNBC that further rate increases could expose more fragilities in the U.S. banking sector. But banking authorities in the European Union, where Italy's UniCredit is headquartered, have repeatedly said they do not see the same level of risk in the region, arguing European banks are well-capitalized and face stronger regulation.

☆ The market is looking for the next 'domino' to fall, keeping banks under pressure
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Hugh Son | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

After an intense few days in which the fate of ailing lender First Republic was finally determined, veteran banking analyst Christopher McGratty was looking forward to some calm. Minutes after the start of regular trading, however, the regional bank stocks he covers for KBW began plunging. "I was like, 'Hey, it's a good day to catch up, it seems like an orderly kind of day,'" McGratty said in a phone interview. "I get back to my desk, and I had 40 emails and 10 voicemails, and my screen was completely red." The sharp selloff in regional banks sparked by the March failure of Silicon Valley Bank resumed Tuesday, catching Wall Street analysts and investors off guard.

☆ Michael Milken says recent crisis is the same mistake banks have been making for decades
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Yun Li | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Michael Milken, Chairman of the Milken Institute, speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, on May 2, 2022. "You shouldn't have borrowed short and lent long... Finance 101," Milken said on CNBC's "Last Call." "Again here, the banks have enough credit, they had enough equity, they had enough ability to absorb credit losses that are coming. The founder of the Milken Institute believes that there will be a decrease in the percentage of loans that are owned by the banking system in the aftermath of the crisis. "People are so focused on credit risk, etc., but one of the great risks is interest rate risk."

FDIC Chair Martin Gruenberg has said the report, to be released at 2:00 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) on Monday, will address options on deposit insurance coverage levels, excess deposit insurance, implications of risk-based pricing and the adequacy of the regulator's deposit insurance fund, which will take an estimated $20 billion hit from the failure of SVB and a smaller knock of about $2.5 billion from Signature Bank. The FDIC's deposit insurance fund helps to fulfill the agency's guarantee of bank deposits up to $250,000 per person. In the event an insured bank fails, the FDIC uses the deposit insurance fund to pay back customers who maintained accounts under the limit. U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told Republican lawmakers in March that Congress should re-evaluate limits on the size of federally insured bank deposits. Some analysts have floated a more targeted change: raising the insurance cap for small business accounts used to manage payroll and other transactions.

☆ JPMorgan takes over First Republic after it's seized by Californian financial regulator
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Hugh Son | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

A view of the First Republic Bank logo at the Park Avenue location, in New York City, March 10, 2023. The Californian financial regulator took possession of First Republic Monday, resulting in the third failure of an American bank since March, after a last-ditch effort to persuade rival lenders to keep the ailing bank afloat failed. JPMorgan Chase acquired all of First Republic's deposits, including uninsured deposits, and a "substantial majority of assets," according to a release. "As part of the transaction, First Republic Bank's 84 offices in eight states will reopen as branches of JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association, today during normal business hours," the FDIC said in a statement. "All depositors of First Republic Bank will become depositors of JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association, and will have full access to all of their deposits."

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