Treasury, Federal Reserve Bank, FDIC Map Out Approach to Silicon Valley Bank Collapse

Depositors of the Silicon Valley Bank will have access to all of their money – following the bank’s failure on Friday – at no loss to American taxpayers, the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) said in a joint statement Sunday.

“Today we are taking decisive actions to protect the U.S. economy by strengthening public confidence in our banking system,” the joint statement read. “This step will ensure that the U.S. banking system continues to perform its vital roles of protecting deposits and providing access to credit to households and businesses in a manner that promotes strong and sustainable economic growth.”

The statement said Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen had approved actions enabling the FDIC to complete its resolution of SVB “in a manner that fully protects depositors.”

Depositors will have access to all of their money starting Monday, March 13. The taxpayer will bear no losses associated with the resolution of SVB.

Notably, the regulators’ statement also announced the shutdown of New York-based Signature Bank.

“We are also announcing a similar systemic risk exception for Signature Bank, New York, New York, which was closed today by its state chartering authority,” the joint statement read.

Any losses to the Deposit Insurance Fund to support uninsured depositors will be recovered by a special assessment on banks, as required by law.

The Federal Reserve said it would make additional funding available to “eligible depository institutions to help assure banks have the ability to meet the needs of all their depositors.”

Silicon Valley Bank, the nation’s 16th-largest bank, failed Friday after depositors hurried to withdraw money this week amid anxiety over the bank’s health. It was the second-biggest bank failure in U.S. history after the collapse of Washington Mutual in 2008.