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Wow, here’s the real news:

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

Note the uninsured depositors clause in there — FDIC &co seem to have acted unilaterally to extend deposit insurance beyond the 250k and to the full amounts of any deposit account.

And they are charging the banks for it.

If this doesn’t stop a run on the banks, nothing will, frankly.



This round of bank failures was special because the debt held by these banks lost value because there is better stuff on the market, not because there was anything intrinsically uncollectable about the original debt. In fact, the debt probably is pretty similar to stuff held by everyone else in this ecosystem. This provides flexibility to meet the urgency of the situation, and FDIC, Fed, Treasury are simply saying "we know what the stuff is worth and there is enough money in the pot to make all depositors hole." "No more bank runs at this time please."


> In fact, the debt probably is pretty similar to stuff held by everyone else in this ecosystem.

Anyone responsible that ended up holding similar bonds would've bought interest rate swaps to hedge their interest risk.


I would be careful using the past tense on this one. Tomorrow morning will be very interesting in a bad sort of way. A war, a pandemic, a financial crisis. What's next?


> In fact, the debt probably is pretty similar to stuff held by everyone else in this ecosystem.

This doesn't appear to be true. Everything I've read points to SVB being truly unique in their lack of risk management. SVB left these positions unhedged against rates. That is very atypical.


And yet, socializing any potential losses across banks (as opposed to homeowners, back in 2008) feels like the appropriate move.


> Shareholders and certain unsecured debtholders will not be protected. Senior management has also been removed.

how do you interpret this part? what is an example of somebody who would be an unsecured debtholder? as in somebody with a stake in SVB the buisness?

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/SIVB/


> how do you interpret this part? what is an example of somebody who would be an unsecured debtholder? as in somebody with a stake in SVB the buisness?

Bondholders, not just shareholders.

The implication is that every security here is wiped out: https://ir.svb.com/shareholder-and-bondholder-information/of...


Yeah it's an investor who invested in a debt instrument offered by the bank. So CD holders will be made whole but holders of any corporate bonds won't.


Yeah, someone who bought SVB's corporate bonds.




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