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☆ Senators call on former Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank CEOs to testify
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Chelsey Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON — Bipartisan leaders of a Senate committee investigating the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank called Thursday for both institutions' former CEOs to testify about the collapses that have sparked fears about broader economic damage. Ex-SVB CEO Gregory Becker and former Signature CEO Joseph DePaolo "must answer for" their banks' "downfall," wrote Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Tim Scott, R-S.C., in letters to the former executives. Brown and Scott are the chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. Brown and Scott urged the two former executives to answer the panel's questions "at a future date."

☆ Exclusive: Republican U.S. Senator Rick Scott, Democrat Warren unveil Fed oversight bill
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( David Morgan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Republican Rick Scott and Democrat Elizabeth Warren blamed the collapse of the two banks on regulatory failures at the U.S. central bank, which has operated up to now with an internal inspector general who reports to the Fed board. "Our legislation fixes that by establishing a presidentially-appointed, Senate-confirmed inspector general at the Fed, like every other major government agency," Scott said in a joint release with Warren. Warren said this month's banking upheavals "have underscored the urgent need for a truly independent inspector general to hold Fed officials accountable for any lapses or wrongdoing." She sits on both the Senate Banking Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, and chairs subcommittees of both panels. Reporting by David Morgan and Heather Timmons; Editing by Scott Malone and Jonathan OatisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

March 22 (Reuters) - U.S. authorities are set to explore ways to bolster financial stability, along with steps to tackle the problems facing First Republic Bank, as central banks assess whether turmoil in banking makes interest rate rises less pressing. SVB's collapse kicked off a tumultuous 10 days for banks which led to the 3 billion Swiss franc ($3.2 billion) Swiss engineered takeover of Credit Suisse by rival UBS (UBSG.S). While that deal brought some respite to battered banking stocks, U.S. lender First Republic (FRC.N) remains firmly in the spotlight. Reuters Graphics Reuters Graphics'HEAD IN SAND'The wipeout of Credit Suisse's Additional Tier-1 (AT1) bondholders has sent shockwaves through bank debt markets. For now, the Swiss bank rescue appears to have assuaged the worst fears of systemic contagion, boosting shares of European banks (.SX7P) and U.S. lenders (.SPXBK).

But an unexpected jump in UK inflation last month led investors to bet heavily that the Bank of England will raise interest rates by at least another 25 bps on Thursday. SVB's collapse kicked off a tumultuous 10 days for banks which led to the 3 billion Swiss franc ($3.2 billion) Swiss regulator-engineered takeover of Credit Suisse by rival UBS. While that deal brought some respite to battered banking stocks, U.S. lender First Republic remains firmly in the spotlight. First Republic (FRC.N) shares fell 9% in extended trade on Tuesday, having surged as much as 60% at one stage. For now, the Swiss bank rescue appears to have assuaged the worst fears of systemic contagion, boosting shares of European banks (.SX7P) and U.S. lenders (.SPXBK).

The Fed's relentless rate hikes to rein in inflation have been partly blamed for sparking the biggest meltdown in the banking sector since the 2008 financial crisis. For now, Credit Suisse's rescue appears to have assuaged the worst fears of systemic contagion, boosting shares of European banks (.SX7P) and U.S. regional lenders. The S&P 500 banks index (.SPXBK) rallied 3.6%, its largest one-day gain since November. Still, Australia's prudential regulator has started asking the country's banks to declare their exposure to startups and crypto-focused ventures following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, according to the Australian Financial Review. Market cap of US regional banks included in the S&P 500 regional bank indexDeputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said a review of the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and rival Signature Bank was in order.

☆ What would a federal expansion of deposit insurance look like?
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Ramishah Maruf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

That’s the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s standard limit, meaning any bank deposits up to that amount are protected by the independent government agency. But now there’s growing support for raising that insurance cap. A higher insurance cap doesn’t automatically mean banks will be subject to tighter regulations, Dollar noted, but there could be some call for it. The FDIC insurance limit has been raised seven times since 1950 — and $250,000 also isn’t a calculated number, Collins said. In 2008, the FDIC used the same system for temporary unlimited deposit insurance guarantee on certain accounts.

☆ US Senate Banking Committee to hold hearings on Silicon Valley Bank collapse
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Moira Warburton | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, March 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Banking Committee will hold the first of several hearings on the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank on March 28, Democratic Chairman Sherrod Brown said on Tuesday. "It is critical that we get to the bottom of how Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapsed so that we can maintain a strong banking system, protect Americans' hard-earned money, and hold those responsible accountable, including the CEOs," Brown said. Silicon Valley Bank was taken over by federal regulators on March 10, with Signature Bank following suit a few days later. Multiple federal agencies - including the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission - are probing SVB. Last week, Brown told reporters that new bank industry legislation is unlikely to emerge from Congress.

☆ Op-ed: ESG investing and 2018 change in bank laws didn't cause Silicon Valley Bank to collapse, says former Sen. Heitkamp
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Heidi Heitkamp | Former Democratic U.S. Senator North Dakota | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Within hours of the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, political spin machines on both the left and right got cranking. I was one of the Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee who negotiated that legislation, which granted regulatory relief to small community and mid-sized regional banks. Under the burden of increased regulation, smaller institutions and many regional banks were struggling to stay competitive. If all the bank depositors withdrew their deposits on the same day, any bank would fail regardless of liquidity or bank capitalization.) The Fed had the authority to enhance the current level of regional bank supervision, a step the central bank is considering in the wake of the SVB failure.

☆ Republicans request Fed and FDIC oversight records for failed Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Christina Wilkie | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The Federal Reserve also created a Bank Term Funding Program aimed at safeguarding institutions affected by the market instability of the bank failures. In the days following the collapse, reports have emerged indicating that Silicon Valley Bank ignored repeated warnings from bank regulators that the bank would be at risk of collapse in the event that interest rates rose quickly. In it, Brown suggested that responsibility for the bank failures lay in part with top executives at the failed banks. Brown also asked the regulators to "identify and close regulatory gaps, shortfalls, or failures by state or federal regulators that contributed to the banks' failures." He did not ask for the names of individual Fed or FDIC officials involved in supervising the banks.

☆ U.S. lawmakers to examine merits of higher bank deposit insurance cap
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( David Lawder | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/4] Signs explaining Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and other banking policies are shown on the counter of a bank in Westminster, Colorado November 3, 2009. "I think that lifting the FDIC insurance cap is a good move," Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, said on CBS's "Face The Nation" program, referring to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's current $250,000 limit per depositor. During the financial crisis that erupted in 2008, the FDIC temporarily backstopped all deposits to safeguard smaller banks. Pressure on midsized and smaller banks from deposit outflows continued on Friday despite a move by several large banks to deposit $30 billion into First Republic Bank (FRC.N), an institution rocked by the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SIVB.O) and Signature Bank (SBNY.O). McHenry said he wanted to examine the trade-offs of higher deposit insurance limits, "the moral hazard of having more risk taking in the financial sector, and also the impact it would have on community banks."

☆ Lloyd Blankfein on safety of money: 'Sort of yes'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( Ramishah Maruf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Lloyd Blankfein, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs said the answer is not black and white on “Fareed Zakaria GPS” Sunday. Instead, the central bank along with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Treasury Department, have the power to guarantee deposits bank by bank if they find a systemic emergency. “Do we want to make it the duty of depositors to do that kind of forensic accounting analysis on banks?” Blankfein said. If it’s certified, we get on them.”The difference between 2008 and now is the difference in assets, Blankfein said. If the current model of banking stays in place, most Americans will think their money is only safe in too-big-to-fail banks, Blankfein said.

☆ Elizabeth Warren: Jerome Powell has ‘failed’ as Federal Reserve chair
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( Summer Concepcion | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., slammed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell in an interview with NBC News' "Meet the Press" Sunday, saying he "has failed" in his duties and shouldn't be in his role. "Look, I don't think he should be chairman of the Federal Reserve. I've said it to everyone," said Warren, who serves on the Senate Banking Committee. Powell, who was nominated by President Donald Trump in 2017, has faced criticism over his handling of banking regulations following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. Warren has been pressing for stricter banking regulations.

☆ U.S. lawmakers to examine merits of higher FDIC bank deposit insurance cap
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

"I think that lifting the FDIC insurance cap is a good move," Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, said on CBS's "Face The Nation" program, referring to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's current $250,000 limit per depositor. "What I will do though, legislatively, and in an oversight function, is to determine whether or not we need to address the FDIC deposit level," McHenry told the same CBS program. During the financial crisis that erupted in 2008, the FDIC temporarily backstopped all deposits to safeguard smaller banks. Pressure on midsized and smaller banks from deposit outflows continued on Friday despite a move by several large banks to deposit $30 billion into First Republic Bank, an institution rocked by the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. McHenry said he wanted to examine the trade-offs of higher deposit insurance limits, "the moral hazard of having more risk-taking in the financial sector, and also the impact it would have on community banks."

☆ SVB collapse is double-whammy for tech startups already navigating brutal market
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +11 min

He'd started the process six months earlier during a brutal period for tech stocks and a plunge in venture funding. Investors were just pulling in their horns, the SPAC market had fallen apart, valuations for tech companies were collapsing." In the absence of venture funding, money-losing startups have had to cut their burn rates in order to extend their cash runway. Since the beginning of 2022, roughly 1,500 tech companies have laid off a total of close to 300,000 people, according to the website Layoffs.fyi. Kruze Consulting provides accounting and other back-end services to hundreds of tech startups.

☆ Silicon Valley Bank ex-CEO backed Big Tech lobbying groups that targeted Dodd-Frank, sought corporate tax cuts
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Brian Schwartz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Greg Becker, President and CEO of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference on May 3, 2022 in Beverly Hills, California. Both trade organizations included Silicon Valley Bank as a member before its failure, according to archived versions of their websites. The organization has spent more than $2 million since the start of 2020 on lobbying Congress, according to its lobbying disclosure reports. Federal records show that the Silicon Valley Leadership Group has not filed lobbying disclosure reports since 2009. Becker was chairman of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group from 2014 through 2017, according to an archived version of his SVB bio page.

March 15 (Reuters) - Swiss regulators pledged a liquidity lifeline to Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) in an unprecedented move by a central bank after the flagship Swiss lender's shares tumbled as much as 30% on Wednesday. They said the bank could access liquidity from the central bank if needed. Credit Suisse said it welcomed the statement of support from the Swiss National Bank and FINMA. Hoping to quell concerns, FINMA and the Swiss central bank said there were no indications of a direct risk of contagion for Swiss institutions from U.S. banking market turmoil. The logo of Swiss bank Credit Suisse is seen in front of an office building in Zurich, Switzerland October 26, 2022.

☆ Top US Senate Democrat Schumer wants legislative response to banking ills
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Moira Warburton | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

"We need strong legislation and hopefully we can put something together that's bipartisan," Schumer told reporters following a closed policy lunch with his fellow Democrats. Calls for increased oversight of the U.S. banking industry grew as fallout from Friday's collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) widened. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown, however, downplayed the likelihood of Congress passing a "significant" banking bill anytime soon. Republicans hold a narrow majority in the House of Representatives and Democrats do not control enough votes in the Senate to advance legislation without Republican cooperation. Reporting by Moira Warburton and Richard Cowan in Washington; Editing by Mark Porter and Nick ZieminskiOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Asian shares rise as fears about rapid Fed hikes, bank crisis fade
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Ankur Banerjee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The rally is unlikely to continue in Europe with European stock futures indicating a lower open. Eurostoxx 50 futures were down 0.07%, German DAX futures up 0.01% and FTSE futures down 0.04%. "It's clearly dominated by a relief rally rather than any inflation angst," said Robert Carnell, regional head of research, Asia Pacific at ING. There were worries that stronger-than-expected data might lead the Fed to go for jumbo-sized hikes to battle inflation. Chinese shares gained with Shanghai Composite Index (.SSEC) 0.46% higher, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index (.HSI) up 1.75%1.4%.

☆ Asian shares gain as fears about rapid Fed hikes, bank crisis fade
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Ankur Banerjee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Investors piled back into stocks in U.S. markets overnight as fears about contagion in the banking sector following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) last week eased. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index (.AXJO) rose 0.33% in early trading, while Japan's Nikkei (.N225) was mostly flat. Chinese shares (.SSEC) were 0.46% higher, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index (.HSI) rose 1.4%. U.S. Treasury yields extended gains into Asian hours after sharp declines at the start of the week. U.S. crude rose 1.07% to $72.09 per barrel and Brent was at $78.16, up 0.92% on the day.

☆ Tech pressure, Yellen everywhere: How Washington scrambled as SVB collapsed
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Andrea Shalal | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Yellen heads to the White House, Brainard meets with her staff and holds Zoom calls in her wood-paneled office in the West Wing. Treasury staff hustle to get Yellen on CBS News' "Face the Nation" program on Sunday, in an attempt to reassure markets. White House officials draft news releases with various scenarios, uncertain until shortly before 6 p.m. if an acquisition can still happen. As he leaves Delaware to return to the White House, Biden tells reporters he will make a statement on Monday. Treasury and White House officials reach out to members of Congress and their staffs throughout the evening to explain the plan, with discussions continuing into Monday.

☆ U.S. Senate banking panel to hold hearings on sector's woes, chair says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON, March 15 (Reuters) - The Democratic head of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday said the panel would hold hearings on the bank industry's problems but that any new legislation was unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives. The panel's chairman, Sherrod Brown, speaking to reporters, did not give a date for any hearings but said they would provide "oversight." Reporting by Richard Cowan; writing by Susan Heavey; editing by Tim AhmannOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Top Senate Democrats press DOJ, SEC to investigate whether Silicon Valley Bank executives broke any laws
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Chelsey Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

California bank regulators shuttered SVB on Friday and the FDIC set up an intermediary bank to take over the bank's insured deposits. By Sunday, New York state bank regulators and the FDIC did the same to Signature Bank, which was a major source of lending for the cryptocurrency industry. The letter came on the heels of a joint announcement by the Justice Department and the SEC about the pending investigation into the SVB failure. Bank officials also lobbied Congress for exemptions to federal oversight regulations. "I am not prejudging this matter, and am not in position to do so," the lawmakers wrote to Gensler and Garland.

☆ U.S. Senate's banking panel chairman: Congress unlikely to tighten banking rules
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON, March 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress should enact financial regulations to strengthen stress tests and capital and liquidity standards for banks, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown said on Tuesday, but he added prospects remained low for such a step. Brown, an Ohio Democrat, told Bloomberg TV that prospects were low for the Congress to stiffen financial regulations after the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank (SBNY.O). Brown added that he hoped the Federal Reserve would not raise rates when it meets March 21 and 22. Reporting by Caitlin Webber; editing by Kanishka SinghOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Investors tiptoe back into US bank stocks, regulators probe SVB collapse
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Chris Prentice | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

March 14 (Reuters) - Bruised U.S. bank stocks regained some ground on Tuesday, as a sell-off sparked by Silicon Valley Bank's collapse gave way to bargain-hunting by investors hopeful that efforts to shore up confidence would avert a wider financial crisis. The S&P 500 regional banks index (.SPLRCBNKS) rebounded 1.4%, leaving it with a 26% loss over the past five sessions. Investors worry about the health of smaller banks, the prospect of tighter regulation and authorities' preference for protecting depositors before shareholders. Reuters Graphics Reuters GraphicsINVESTIGATIONSAs markets adjusted to the impact of SVB's collapse, regulars turned their focus to the circumstances around the bank's collapse. Officials are also examining stock sales by officers of SVB Financial Group, which owned the bank, the WSJ reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The yen was last down about 0.15% at 136.36 after a knee-jerk plunge of as much as 0.62% after the BOJ kept policy unchanged in Governor Haruhiko Kuroda's final policy meeting before retirement. Despite some volatility against the yen, the U.S. dollar was mostly flat on Friday. Against a basket of currencies, the U.S. dollar index was little changed at 105.28 but remained on track for a weekly gain of 0.73%. The focus now turns to the closely watched nonfarm payrolls report later on Friday, the next major data point that could offer clues on the Fed's next steps for monetary policy. According to a Reuters survey of economists, nonfarm payrolls likely increased by 205,000 jobs in February after surging by 517,000 in January.

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