Saturday, March 11th 2023
Silicon Valley Bank Collapses, Causes Concern Within Tech Industry, Roku Divulges its SVB Investments
Technology Companies, Venture Capitalists and Startups are in panic after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on Friday, March 11, 2023. In the short term it will be a mess - customers of SVB have no access to FDIC insured deposits until Monday (March 13). Customers with investments below a $250,000 cap have been advised to make claims before a strict Monday deadline. The FDIC is forming plans to pay depositors, with investments greater than the aforementioned cap, a special dividend next week.US Regulators have swooped in to recover assets from Silicon Valley Bank. This is the first failure of a North American banking group since the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009. Whispers of SVB's oncoming financial troubles were heard earlier this week, which prompted a run of withdrawals from the bank by worried customers. Regulators stated that they took swift action in order to "protect insured depositors." On Wednesday 8, SVB Financial Group, the bank's parent company, revealed plans of a sale of shares totalling $2.25 billion. This followed a reported loss of $2 billion, from the selling off of $21 billion of securities from its portfolio. The banking group had experienced slowdown from its investments in bonds.
Entertainment Streaming company Roku has revealed, via an SEC filing on Friday, that it has $487 million deposited with the crumbling Silicon Valley Bank. That sum represents roughly 26% of Roku's total cash reserves and equivalents. The company also mentioned that its investments with Silicon Valley Bank are mostly of an uninsured status. Roku said. "At this time, the company does not know to what extent the company will be able to recover its cash on deposit at SVB." A spokesperson for Roku told Business Insider by email, "As stated in our 8-K, we expect that Roku's ability to operate and meet its contractual obligations will not be impacted and we continue to have access to $1.4 billion in cash and cash equivalents which are distributed across multiple, large financial institutions."It remains to be seen how many more companies will be affected by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. News outlets are today reporting that Roblox Corporation, Rocket Lab and Vice Media are SVB customers. Financial analysts are keeping an eye on the resulting fallout, and predictions have been posited regarding the fragile status of certain banking groups. The US Federal Reserve, as well as other international central banks, have sharply raised interest rates and borrowing costs in attempts to dampen the effects of inflation. This has had a knock-on effect on the bond market - portfolios decline in value as interest rates rise.
Sources:
BBC News, Business Insider
Entertainment Streaming company Roku has revealed, via an SEC filing on Friday, that it has $487 million deposited with the crumbling Silicon Valley Bank. That sum represents roughly 26% of Roku's total cash reserves and equivalents. The company also mentioned that its investments with Silicon Valley Bank are mostly of an uninsured status. Roku said. "At this time, the company does not know to what extent the company will be able to recover its cash on deposit at SVB." A spokesperson for Roku told Business Insider by email, "As stated in our 8-K, we expect that Roku's ability to operate and meet its contractual obligations will not be impacted and we continue to have access to $1.4 billion in cash and cash equivalents which are distributed across multiple, large financial institutions."It remains to be seen how many more companies will be affected by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. News outlets are today reporting that Roblox Corporation, Rocket Lab and Vice Media are SVB customers. Financial analysts are keeping an eye on the resulting fallout, and predictions have been posited regarding the fragile status of certain banking groups. The US Federal Reserve, as well as other international central banks, have sharply raised interest rates and borrowing costs in attempts to dampen the effects of inflation. This has had a knock-on effect on the bond market - portfolios decline in value as interest rates rise.
133 Comments on Silicon Valley Bank Collapses, Causes Concern Within Tech Industry, Roku Divulges its SVB Investments
Inflation is bad. Bank failures are bad (as is unemployment, and all sorts of other issues related to higher rates). Now we have to worry about threading the needle. I hope that these loans + FDIC backstops will strengthen bank positions so that we can continue our fight against inflation. We've got a long way to go still.
First Republic Rebounds 60% As Bank Fears Ease
www.cnbc.com/2023/03/14/moodys-cuts-outlook-on-us-banking-system-to-negative-citing-rapidly-deteriorating-operating-environment.html
On Wednesday Night, it turned out that Silicon Valley Bank only had $180 Billion or so (estimated: 50%ish long-term bonds, 20%ish decline in value). This has been true for some time, but it was "revealed" on Wednesday night.
Thursday, when the stock markets opened, shareholders dumped their shares. As the shares collapsed, the depositors began to notice that maybe their money wasn't safe. So they withdrew $40+ Billion on Thursday, which was all the cash Silicon Valley Bank had on hand (The other $140B remaining is harder to sell and turn back into cash). By Friday, FDIC was forced to take over.
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This "loss" of money, from $200B in deposits down to $180B (or so) happened over the last two years gradually... as the bank made bad bets in the bond market. But this was so gradual that most people didn't notice. What happened on Wednesday was it being "revealed" and everyone recognizing the problem at the same time. This decline in value happened because the Fed has been raising interest rates in an attempt to stop inflation over the past year. As people realized that the bank was in trouble, they sold shares + took out their money, making the problem worse-and-worse until FDIC stepped in and stopped the panic attack.
TL;DR: The bank didn't collapse suddenly. The conditions of collapse were setup over 2 years. What happened "suddenly" was everyone realizing that the bank was in an insolvent / collapsed state. That is one of the dangers of banking, you don't actually collapse when problems (ex: losing money) occurs. You collapse when people notice the missing money. The money could have gone missing last year, or even a decade ago, but if people don't notice, then you can keep chugging along.