U.S. lawmakers met with the Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Friday to discuss the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) held briefings with officials from the two federal bank regulators, as well as the Treasury Department late in the day, hours after the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation took over the bank and turned it over to the FDIC. Lawmakers from both major political parties were present at the meetings with regulators, a person familiar told CoinDesk.
A number of lawmakers expressed concern after SVB collapsed earlier Friday, including Waters.
“I am alarmed by the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, which marks the second largest bank failure in U.S. history,” she said in a statement. “I am closely monitoring and convening Committee members with regulators so myself and members can understand the latest around the closure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) appointed as receiver. I appreciate the DFPI and the FDIC for taking decisive action today, and I remain confident in America’s financial markets and the ability of our regulators to protect consumers and investors.”
Several California lawmakers tweeted they were also following the situation. One key concern is whether depositors would receive any portion of their funds beyond the FDIC’s $250,000 limit per account.
In a statement, the FDIC said it would provide uninsured depositors an advance dividend and a receivership certificate.
Companies that banked at SVB may have difficulty meeting payroll, and checks or wires initiated right before the bank’s collapse may fail. (SVB was CoinDesk’s bank.)
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) tweeted that he was speaking with other lawmakers about this issue.
“We must make sure all deposits exceeding the FDIC $250k limit are honored. Banking is about confidence. If depositors lose confidence on the safety of their deposits over 250k then we are in trouble,” he said.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), whose district includes SVB’s hometown of Santa Clara, tweeted that he spoke to the White House and Treasury Department about the bank.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has also met with bank regulators from the Fed, FDIC, and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a statement from the department said.
“Secretary Yellen expressed full confidence in banking regulators to take appropriate actions in response and noted that the banking system remains resilient and regulators have effective tools to address this type of event,” the statement said.
