It’s been a rough few days for the banking industry with the largest bank failure since the 2008 crisis, and the first since 2020, occurring on Friday. Silicon Valley Bank, the sixteenth largest bank in the US, was taken over by regulators just 48 hours after depositors began removing their funds en masse.
On Sunday, while announcing emergency measures, the Biden administration said that Signature Bank had been closed as well. However, to prevent further contagion from the evolving banking crisis US banking regulators in a joint statement said that all deposits at the failed financial institutions would be made whole.
The emergency measures though haven’t had the complete calming effect on investors that was hoped for. The collapse of SVB has sent shockwaves through the banking sector and a wave of customers have applied to have their accounts moved to larger financial institutions from smaller lenders.
But just how safe are depositors’ savings at banks right now?