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
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133 Comments on Silicon Valley Bank Collapses, Causes Concern Within Tech Industry, Roku Divulges its SVB Investments

#126
R0H1T
Solaris17I don't think the doomsday hype is warranted no.
Not every doomsday has to be as bad/worse than the last one! And 2008, or 1929, will be hard to usurp in that sense.
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#127
Solaris17
Super Dainty Moderator
R0H1TNot every doomsday has to be as bad/worse than the last one! And 2008, or 1929, will be hard to usurp in that sense.
That is true! what an excellent perspective! You are certainly right.
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#128
dragontamer5788
Solaris17I don't think the doomsday hype is warranted no.
Doomsday no. This is a problem for the Fed and the Treasury though. In particular, these banking failures are taking away our tools to try and fix inflation.

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.
Posted on Reply
#129
erek
dragontamer5788Doomsday no. This is a problem for the Fed and the Treasury though. In particular, these banking failures are taking away our tools to try and fix inflation.

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

Posted on Reply
#131
Octopuss
I am economically retarded, so please someone explain to me how can a bank suddenly collapse into thin mist of dog shit.
Posted on Reply
#132
Why_Me
OctopussI am economically retarded, so please someone explain to me how can a bank suddenly collapse into thin mist of dog shit.
The bank had more debt than assets.
Posted on Reply
#133
dragontamer5788
OctopussI am economically retarded, so please someone explain to me how can a bank suddenly collapse into thin mist of dog shit.
On Monday, everyone (especially depositors) thought there was $200 Billion in the bank, matching the $200 Billion in deposits. (Rough, round numbers. I'm not bothering to look up the real numbers, but hopefully $200 Billion gives you an idea of what happened here).

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.

-------------

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.
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