The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 13 March 2023
⏱️ 21 minutes
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Summary
Silicon Valley Bank is dead. The institution that was a major financier for venture capitalists, tech start-ups and other Silicon Valley outfits has collapsed. Enter: the federal government.
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When depositors who belonged to Silicon Valley Bank started quickly withdrawing their money recently, it caused a “bank run.” This led to the ruin of the tech-focused bank, the largest bank failure since the Great Recession. Now the federal government is stepping in to ensure customers are still able to access their money and company payrolls are distributed.
Silicon Valley Bank catered to start-ups, venture capitalist groups, and even companies like Pinterest and Airbnb. Reporter Jeff Stein talks about why the government is taking such drastic measures to make sure all deposits will be available this week.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | On Friday, something really remarkable happened. |
| 0:05.8 | An entire bank collapsed. |
| 0:08.0 | The nation's 16th largest bank collapsed within hours, leaving customers in limbo and forcing |
| 0:14.7 | federal regulators to swoop in. |
| 0:17.0 | It's called Silicon Valley Bank, and it is one of the tech industry's largest lenders, |
| 0:21.0 | also lends to individuals across the country. |
| 0:23.0 | It is now under control of the federal government. |
| 0:25.8 | The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank is the second largest bank failure in US history. |
| 0:31.8 | Thousands of people were affected. |
| 0:33.8 | Billions of dollars are at stake. |
| 0:36.4 | One tech executive called this an extinction level event for startups. |
| 0:41.2 | And it seemingly happened overnight. |
| 0:43.6 | The speed with which the psychological aspects of this crisis have emerged is maybe the |
| 0:48.9 | most shocking part of the whole thing. |
| 0:50.7 | You can read about bank runs and textbooks, and you can watch. |
| 0:54.0 | It's a wonderful life and see how that unfolds. |
| 0:57.6 | But I've never covered and seen, and many of the experts have never seen, the speed |
| 1:02.6 | with which this happened. |
| 1:04.1 | Jeff Stein is a White House economics reporter for the post. |
| 1:07.7 | And he's been getting an inside look into the federal government's response to this massive |
| 1:12.5 | financial failure. |
| 1:14.2 | Saturday morning, I woke up to a call from a source who said something that I was so |
... |
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