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It’s not interesting because of its name, it’s the 18th largest bank in the US. A domino that big usually doesn’t fall alone. Also, FDIC hasn’t taken over a ban

It’s not interesting because of its name, it’s the 18th largest bank in the US. A domino that big usually doesn’t fall alone. Also, FDIC hasn’t taken over a bank since 2020. This isn’t exactly a common occurrence.

game_the0ry 4y ago
> It’s not interesting because of its name, it’s the 18th largest bank in the US. Given how much media attention silicon valley gets, for better or worse, the name of the bank would have some affect. Tech and fintwit are both blowing up on SVB, there are like 4 SVB related posts on HN front page, I even some reddit posts. This will be big in the media, and therefore the public conscience.
mywittyname 4y ago
"Since 2020" is not a great metric, since a lot happened in 2020. Here is a chart that shows the number of bank failures over the past decade [0]. As you can see, having a year with 0 failures is actually the outlier. The average annual bank failure over the past 20 years is roughly 20 per year and the median number is 8 per year. [0] https://www.fdic.gov/bank/historical/bank/ https://www.fdic.gov/bank/historical/bank/
- bombcar 4y ago
  Note that FDIC has a precise meaning for a "bank failure" - many more "failures" occur but FDIC gets there early enough and arranges for another bank to "take over" - more or less quietly. These are usually tiny community banks.
- pbourke 4y ago
  A failure in “First Community Bank of Left Buttcheek, GA” is not the same as the failure of a $200B institution.
pbourke 4y ago
It’s also the second largest U.S. bank failure. WaMu was considerably larger when adjusted for inflation - $300B in 2008 dollars (> $400B in 2023) vs SVB at $200B in 2023 dollars.
Ekaros 4y ago
I think big question really is has any other banks "invested" their deposits in similar manner. So could there be others that will go down if bank run is encouraged?
subarctic 4y ago
I know very little about this, but the wikipedia page says it's the second largest bank failure in the history of the US, so maybe you're underselling it a bit? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Valley_Bank https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Valley_Bank

game_the0ry 4y ago

> It’s not interesting because of its name, it’s the 18th largest bank in the US. Given how much media attention silicon valley gets, for better or worse, the name of the bank would have some affect. Tech and fintwit are both blowing up on SVB, there are like 4 SVB related posts on HN front page, I even some reddit posts. This will be big in the media, and therefore the public conscience.

mywittyname 4y ago

"Since 2020" is not a great metric, since a lot happened in 2020. Here is a chart that shows the number of bank failures over the past decade [0]. As you can see, having a year with 0 failures is actually the outlier. The average annual bank failure over the past 20 years is roughly 20 per year and the median number is 8 per year. [0] https://www.fdic.gov/bank/historical/bank/ https://www.fdic.gov/bank/historical/bank/

bombcar 4y ago
Note that FDIC has a precise meaning for a "bank failure" - many more "failures" occur but FDIC gets there early enough and arranges for another bank to "take over" - more or less quietly. These are usually tiny community banks.
pbourke 4y ago
A failure in “First Community Bank of Left Buttcheek, GA” is not the same as the failure of a $200B institution.

pbourke 4y ago

It’s also the second largest U.S. bank failure. WaMu was considerably larger when adjusted for inflation - $300B in 2008 dollars (> $400B in 2023) vs SVB at $200B in 2023 dollars.

Ekaros 4y ago

I think big question really is has any other banks "invested" their deposits in similar manner. So could there be others that will go down if bank run is encouraged?

subarctic 4y ago

I know very little about this, but the wikipedia page says it's the second largest bank failure in the history of the US, so maybe you're underselling it a bit? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Valley_Bank https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Valley_Bank